The Unfortunate Fortunate Life Of Sakura Haruno
by Shattering The Silence
Summary: Life as Sakura Haruno didn't hit off with a great start. After all, who would accept a fat ugly girl with an overly proportioned forehead? Of course being taken away from the only home she knew only caused more inner turmoil. But going back seemed harder than it looked especially not knowing if her previous school peers would remember her or not. Modern day fanfic.
1. Poor Unfortunate Soul

**~The Unfortunate Fortunate Life Of Sakura Haruno~**

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**Life as Sakura Haruno didn't hit off with a great start. After all, who would accept a fat ugly girl with an overly proportioned forehead? Of course being taken away from the only home she knew only caused more inner turmoil. But going back seemed harder than it looked especially not knowing if her previous school peers would remember her or not.**

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**~Chapter 1: Poor Unfortunate Soul~**

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It was like a magnetic pull. The way she was drawn to him, even if she was in a room full of people, she could only see him. He shined brighter than everyone else, like an angel sent straight from heaven. He was the most beautiful person she'd ever met, but beautiful didn't seem to cover his angelic features. He was heart stopping.

That really didn't go over what intrigued the pinkette, it was how he was so enigmatic. His very scent and aura was a mystery and it just made her love him more. Though she didn't know him personally, just observed from a distance, the moment she laid eyes on the young boy she had fallen in love with him. Any person would, how could they not?

He was an Uchiha after all. They all produced beautiful offspring to the point that you'd think they were an entirely different race of people.

In this young girls eyes, she was greatly envious of that trait. She could hate and love them all at the same time. She even cried over it. How could one person be so _beautiful_? The Uchiha's are perfect. The way they walked, talked, just stood there, the way they _breathed_.

She wanted to be like them, to look like them. She wanted and wished so bad she was an Uchiha. But that never was going to happen. She was a Haruno. Sakura Haruno to be more precise. A plain girl and only feature that did her justice was her shockingly bright coloured hair. Pink.

But even that couldn't cover her ugly and overweight appearance. It just made her stand out more, giving people more of a chance to judge her and call her nasty names. She hated that. She hated that she didn't get the chance to hide away.

Her heart would give horrible tugs and pulls, tightening and constricting her. The lump in her throat was a daily thing, as well as tears. Every day repeated itself.

Each day she would slowly walk to school, and the early morning people that walked the streets of Konoha would give her a long stare. She knew by the way they looked at her, that they were judging her, thinking of horrible names that they didn't dare to utter. But that was the easiest part of her day, _walking_ to school.

When she would reach the school, it was a constant battle to get inside and the thought of turning around and running back home was always there, plaguing her thoughts. But that would only make them laugh more. It depended every day, it depended who was at the school first and who was outside. If she was lucky, there were no more than ten people in the grounds, playing together or just entering. They would of course gather together and stare, maybe a few would call her the odd name or two, but that of course was considered a good day.

When she would reach it to the inside of the school, she would hide in the girls bathroom, in a small cubical until the bell rang, signalling it was time for class. Yet even then, it still wouldn't stop the stares or the sniggers of her classmates.

Sakura found herself in the same seat every year. The farthest back on the left, next to the window. No one sat next to her, and a small part of her was thankful for that. The last time someone had sat next to her, they constantly would stab or prod her with sharp pencils or 'accidentally' slap her with rulers.

She was glad to be alone. That was when no one could truly get to her, or bully her. She found her comfort there, like a welcome home.

Still, some part of her wished to have at least one friend. A friend she could talk to about her problems and have fun with, just like everyone else.

But even her attempts at friend making seemed futile. Who could blame them? After all, she was unlovable, an ugly fat child with an extremely large forehead that she was constantly being reminded of. She was nothing more than a pig, as her nickname was.

Sakura wondered why she was cursed with such looks. Her mother and father were average looking after all, was she doomed to be the ugly duckling forever?

She wanted to be like the princesses in those fairytales, all beautiful and found love in the handsome guy at the end. It was her dream to be like that. To be perfect, like the Uchiha's. but no guy would love her, not even Sasuke, the boy she daydreamed about and thought over fondly. He would never return her feelings.

One of worst thing to ever happen to Sakura, was when she had gone to class early one day. There wasn't anyone in the playgrounds, which she found odd and wandered off to class thinking she was late. Not bothering to check the time, only assuming.

She had opened the door, ultimately sealing her fate. She seen a quick glance of the other children her age, but no teachers. After that, there was a flash of bright pink washing over her. It had happened so quick she didn't even know what had happened until everyone erupted into laughter.

The loudest of the bunch coming from a blond headed boy. The class prankster, the clown. Naruto Uzumaki. His dazzling baby blue eyes danced with excitement and amusement as he pointed at her, laughing hysterically while his other arm draped over his stomach.

The class started chanting and calling her 'piggy' over and over again. Sakura's cheeks had burned a bright red while tears formed in her apple green eyes. It didn't take long for her to realise she had been drenched in pink paint. Covering her head to toe.

"Now she really is a pig!" cried out a voice, coming from next to Naruto. It was another blond, her hair pulled back into a high ponytail and her own blue eyes stared at Sakura as if she was the funniest thing on the planet. Sakura knew this girl all too well, she was the ringleader of most of the bullies. The one pulling the shots. Ino Yamanaka.

Sakura had wondered a great deal of her time on why everyone hated her so much. Did they really hate her? Or was it just simply because of the way she looked? Maybe if she was simpler looking, skinnier, prettier and had a smaller forehead people would accept her more. If only she could blend in to the crowd, people would like her, who knows? Maybe even befriend her.

She just wanted to be normal and accepted.

A small laugh was audible over the loud laughter of the class. It was enough for Sakura's heart to stop in its frantic beating. Everything played in slow-motion as she zoned in on the voices owner.

It was indeed what she had hoped it wouldn't be.

Sasuke Uchiha was laughing at her.

Sakura's eyes visibly widened. Her first love was laughing at her. The lump in her throat seemed to suffocate her in a vice like grasp that left her breathless. Tears pooled down her burning cheeks and her mouth opened as she let out a pathetic cry of sadness, her crooked teeth showing.

It was the fuel to the fire that seemed to burn heatedly in front of her. They laughed louder at her as she cried at them to stop.

Sakura had rubbed her running nose with her paint smeared arm. But her tears did not stop.

And she did the only thing she could do at that point, she ran for it like a bat out of hell. But if only she could run away from herself…

Sakura truly was a poor unfortunate soul.

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**I really hope you enjoyed! This story had been on my computer for awhile now and I honestly forgot about it up until this point. I wouldn't be publishing this if I didn't have plans on finishing it, it's really sparked my interest again! **

**But again, I truly hope you enjoyed reading this!:3 **

**-Pretty please leave a review?-**

**I honestly would love an honest answer to this, be it positive, negative or constructive! I'll take anything!:3**

**Thank you very much for reading!**


	2. Let The Misery Begin Again

**I want to thank the people who have favoured and put my story on alert! It makes me so happy! Ahhh~ Thank you!**

**I also would like to thank trueblue51 and AmyKpd on being the first two to review me!**

**It makes me so happy!:3 I really, **_**really**_** appreciate it, it's already given me an amazing boost in confidence! Aaaah, thank you so much! **

**So sorry if there's any spelling errors and that this chapter is a little short! But fear not, they will indeed be getting longer:3**

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_**A/N: In this chapter, there's going to be a time skip, so please don't be confused!:3**_

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**~Chapter 2: Let The Misery Begin Again~**

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How she found herself back in the place she once called home, she'd never know. How she was _convinced_ to go back was another mystery. It was the bane of her existence, this place. The place she loved so dearly yet hated with a burning passion, with all those painful memories, all she wanted to do was run away. Just like before.

Some part of her knew this was her fathers doing. He knew how much she hated the place, even though she never directly told him, he just knew. But it just so happened he decided to go on important business meetings, just as she was about to going into her next year of high school. What does that tell you?

Her father basically has sentenced her to death. In her mind anyway.

As her parents discussed, they would be away for the majority of the time attending meetings and flying over to other countries to set business contracts. Though she knew what her dad was really after; a partnership contract agreement. To open up another branch to his already flourishing sales.

But to send her back here, of all places. Had they gone crazy? She vowed to never set place there again.

_Konoha._

Sakura thought when she moved away, the bullying would stop. She was very wrong. It was apparent that wherever she went, the laughter would follow. But even after years of agonising torture and being picked on, the mental scars were still fresh and had engraved themselves into her heart.

She just didn't get it, her parents treated her like a gift from the heavens yet people still despised her. She was the rotten apple from her family, the odd one out. She had contemplated may times on dying her hair a normal colour, so she could fit in a little bit more but the better side of her always won and it stayed the same bright coloured pink.

Of course, puberty was the biggest sore of her life. When she had turned 13 her skin completely broke out into spots and became a lot more greasy and oily. That had taken a massive toll on her. She had refused to go to school until the angry blemishes had faded off. It wasn't good enough, even at her new school she had been dubbed by a new nickname.

_Brace Face._

She had gotten braces half way through her first year into high school. She was the only one to have them, everyone else had shockingly straight teeth whereas hers were bent and crooked.

Though it had paid off. By the time she turned 15, she had them removed to show her how straight her teeth had really gotten. She had hoped after that, that the horrible nickname would fade away. Even after walking into school with a huge smile, it was quickly washed away. And thus, the new nickname had taken its place.

_Pinky. _

She couldn't hide from that or change it unless she did dye her hair. Some days she had gone out her way and bought different coloured dyes, such being from blond, brown, red, orange, black. But she never opened them or even attempted to dye her hair, even though she hated it with such a hatred it could kill.

After all the bullying through her time in of the city of Iwagakure, she eventually refused to even leave the house entirely. Her parents barely ever noticed, after all they were always working. So she was always alone, and still not one friend was ever made. Sakura tried her hardest to forget the name-calling by indulging herself in books upon books. That always helped. After all, her father practically had their own private library inside their house.

She barely ate for a good while, resulting in her loosing an unhealthy amount of weight. Which her parents had noticed and confronted her on the matter. The result in that matter ended in Sakura crying for hours. She didn't even know why she was crying, but it could have been at the emotions bottled up that after being confronted, she cracked.

After that incident and just a few months away from her 16th birthday, her mother set her on a diet and fitness program which helped somewhat. Sakura's confidence which had already hit rock bottom, started to skyrocket. And for the first time in a long time, she began to feel happy. But that didn't stop her anxiety about the cruel outdoor.

A short while after her 16th birthday, her skin began to become clearer with all the healthier eating. It was all going well, her parents noticed an improvement. She would talk with them longer instead of a word or two.

But even then, she still had her demons that would eat away at the newly gained confidence. Slowly but surely, they wormed their way back into Sakura's heart. Just because she had a better body, less patchy skin, a forehead she'd slowly been growing into and straighter teeth didn't mean her problems would go away overnight.

If anything, she began to feel worse.

She had been off school for awhile now, though she did have a tutor come by to teach her, she knew her parents would send her back. And that circled a new string of thoughts. They would judge her more now. What new nickname could they give her? That she hadn't already been called before?

Sakura spent the most of the 16th year of her life inside, studying, exercising and reading while she tried desperately to keep her demons at bay. She had no idea what her parents were initially planning.

By the time it rolled around to her 17th birthday, they broke the news. At first, Sakura thought it was a joke. That they were messing with her, she laughed at them. But her parents never laughed with her. They had a serious demeanour and meant everything they said.

It had taken weeks for the words to sink into Sakura's brain. But eventually, she believed it. And new demons began to form and take place.

Would they remember her? Would they taunt her? Call her names? Give her new nicknames? _Bully her again?_

Sakura thought about running away for a long time. But something always got the better of her and made her feel guilty. She didn't want her parents to worry more than they already have. She couldn't allow that to happen. But still, she felt anger toward them.

How could they do this to her? Did they hate her too? _Why?_

But in the end, she found her bags were already packed by the end of July. She had no idea where the time had gone. But she knew that she didn't want to leave her safe place. Her parents thought it was good for her, healthy even. Though they were throwing their only daughter into the deep end, they assumed she could swim.

Deep inside however, Sakura felt like she was drowning.

And thus, the misery shall begin once again.

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**~Review?:3~**

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	3. Keep Your Head Up High

**A/N: I would like to thank to give a big thank you to **_**trueblue51**_** and a new reviewer **_**Tikai**_** (I admire your confidence to tell me something personal like that about yourself. I personally, have never ever been a confident person -though I do put on a mask and try to be confident for friends sake, not so much now, I've kinda 'recoiled'- in all honesty, if I met you in person, I'd be a nervous wreck since I've got quite bad anxiety at the moment. but since you described yourself, I'll tell you something personal about me. I have abnormally large eyes. Even though I've grown into them over age, I'm extremely self conscious about them.)**

**Thank you again for reviewing me though! It makes me so very happy! You're so awesome!**

**I would also like to give another thank you to the lovely people who have put this story on their favourite list or on alert! Thank you sooooo much! **

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**~Chapter 3: Keep Your Head Up High~**

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Sakura was never one to smoke. Or to go near the vile cancer sticks. But that doesn't mean she's never taken one. Right now, however, she couldn't hold herself back. It hadn't seemed like such a good idea when she stole it from her mothers purse before she departed for Konoha.

In a sense, she _needed_ it. It seemed like the only way to calm her nerves.

She didn't feel guilty for stealing them, she just hoped her mother never found out. Sakura knew if she was caught she'd never hear the end of it.

Sakura didn't take out the cigarettes until she had made it to her destination and inside the safety of the house. But she was more than embarrassed when her father insisted she take the limo straight from Iwagakure to the city of Konoha. It was just what she needed, _attention_.

As far as she remembered of Konoha, there was barely any limos floating about or limo owners besides the Uchiha's. And if there was a limo entering Konoha, it always cause a lot of commotion and a stir within the community. It really was the last thing she wanted, having people notice her straight away.

She had made sure that the driver parked a few blocks away from the house she was going to be living in. Sakura was thankful to know it was the same house she used to live in, though there were a few adaptations added on such as extended parts of the house was added and room walls were knocked down so it could be bigger. Plus the garden was extended and more flowers had been planted around the large cherry blossom tree she used to sit at as a child.

It was grand to say the least and very elegant. You'd never think it used to be a small house and lived in by lower class civilians. Sakura would have been happier if it stayed the same, or even if her parents put her in a smaller apartment, she didn't need all that room.

When the limo driver had stopped a few blocks away, Sakura had settled her twisting stomach and prepared to dive for it. She pulled up the hood of the jumper she was wearing and tucked in her pink hair, hoping no one was around to notice. Taking a long and shaky breath, she got ready to take the leap.

Quickly and quietly thanking the driver, she had thrust open the limo door and stumbled out, slamming the door behind her before making a mad dash for safety.

It wasn't until she was inside the house that her heart began to calm down. Luckily she didn't have to drag any of the luggage into the house by herself, seeing as her father hired someone to do it for her already.

She heaved a sigh of relief and pushed off from the door. Her curious emerald eyes beginning to explore the familiar house.

Something's remained the same, but it was only a small portion. The walls had already been repainted, from a dull orange to a calming mosaic colour. And that was only the entrance to the house. It seemed so much smaller when she was a child, but now it was taller for some reason. She figured that would have been from the redecorating. The only thing she remembered that stayed the same, was the family pictures on the wooden table next to the stairs on the right.

The once maroon coloured carpet had been replaced with wooden floorboards that seemed to gleam and show her reflection, which she made sure not to look at directly before patting off down a large corridor and into what she assumed to be the living area.

This was a _lot_ more different from what she remembered. Sakura thought for a second, wondering why her parents thought it was so necessary to change their old house. But she knew ever since her parents business took off that it changed them. They became richer and felt the need to own everything new, decorating became a part of their everyday lives. They just wanted something nice to look at but in Sakura's mind, she felt they lost what it meant to call 'home'.

She didn't blame them, if anyone had the opportunities they had, they would change too. But that was why Sakura promised to herself to stay away from the money, not that she feared she'd change, no, she was scared she'd rip it to shreds. Though she had a large allowance, she never spent a penny. She felt no need to.

Sakura sighed and glanced around dully. Wishing she could burn the room down. She preferred the old furniture. Even though the new stuff was more pleasing to the eye.

The new furniture consisted upon a long black leather couch with a white fluffy foot rest in front of it. On the furthest wall to the left, hung a large flat screen television. There was also bits and bobs around the room, random pictures of flowers placed neatly around the room and a shining silver chandelier hung above her head- she didn't feel too comfortable with that.

Sakura grimaced, turning on her heels and tapped out of the room.

Not even here, her old and very first home, did not feel like home.

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Sakura found her way to her room quite easily. But again, her parents had decided to splash their money on redecorating that also. She wasn't pleased at all. The one thing she was looking forward to, completely ruined.

The bubblegum pink walls were no more, along with her fluffy pink rug and princess bed. Even her heart covered curtains were no longer there. The only thing that remained the same was Jessica, her rabbit that she had forgot to pack before she left. She cried over that for awhile, though her parents bought her a new rabbit teddy, it wasn't the same. None of them had one missing eye and a torn ear.

She could have screamed and cried all in the same. She felt like a stranger to this place. Money wasn't everything. It was just the recipe for insanity.

Sakura huffed and ripped Jessica the rabbit off her new king size bed and trotted over toward the window. She smiled slightly, there wasn't anyone outside her window, or in the street down below, she could take her chance.

Slipping open the window with a light tug, she manoeuvred her body so she was sitting on the windowsill, half her body hanging out. She gripped the curtains, which she mentally cursed her parents for getting thin ones, and pulled it out the window so it covered her front half, face and head. She didn't want to risk being seen.

And so she sat, enjoying the nice warm breeze as she lifted a packet of cigarettes out of her pocket and began to smoke them. She didn't entirely enjoy the taste, it just distracted her for a short whole. After all, she would be starting her next year of high school in the next two days, you see, it was already Friday.

Sakura had thought about what she would wear for her first day. And she thought about what all the other girls wore at her previous high school. She grimaced. It was all about who wore the shortest skirt or the lowest cut top back there. She never dared to even try wear something like that. But she didn't want to look like a slob ether.

She thought about what she owned, and what her mother bought her. Sakura's mother was always up to speed with the latest fashions, after all, she owned her own fashion industry so it would be quite silly if she didn't know.

Sakura pondered for a few, slowly puffing away at the first cigarette.

She wanted to wear something cute, for the first time. But she wanted to feel comfortable in what she wore. Something she could move around easily in and not have to worry about fixing her top or pulling up her trousers.

Sakura eventually sighed in defeat, her head hanging low. She was too scared to go anywhere near the clothes her mother bought for her, or even the ones she personally made herself. The colours were too bright and she didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb, more than she already has. Plus there was dresses, she hated dresses. They made her feel self-conscious. As well as tight fitting tops, the one that showed off your 'figure'. She didn't feel worthy of wearing it. Goodness, she didn't even know how to walk in high heels.

That only made Sakura believe she was a failure of a woman. She started ticking off things in her head.

_Never had sex._

_Never drank alcohol._

_Never stayed at anyone else's house._

_Never had a friend._

_Never had a first kiss. _

_Never had a boyfriend. _

_Never stayed out late._

_Never even gotten into a fight…_

Her mood quickly started to deteriorate after she ran through the list of what she's never done before. If only she was normal like the other girls. But being back in Konoha wasn't going to change any of that. It would be like her old school, they'd make fun of her one way or another. They'd make her feel bad when she heard about all the wild things they got up to on the weekend.

It's going to be the same.

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Sakura spent the weekend indoor, as usual. Trying hard to keep her mind off the upcoming events. But it never seemed to be enough, when she would stop for a break from reading her mind would break out into peril. Leaving her with headaches for hours on end. She barely ate as a result.

She would curl up into a ball and hug Jennifer, trying to make her worries go away. She was _scared_.

Who could blame her? She was alone, more so than ever. Her parents wouldn't be with her anytime soon, no mother to comfort her. No farther to tell her everything will be alright. Her heart would lurch as unintentional memories zoomed through her head. There wasn't anything to distract her fully.

For most of Saturday, Sakura would walk aimlessly around the large house, sometimes with a book in hand other times nothing. She wondered if she played music if it would help her and the empty house, but she decided against it and continued her walk through the house.

She had discovered midway through Saturday that there was an indoor gym near the back of the house. But her motivation to exercise was nonexistent.

Eventually around the end of Saturday, Sakura tried to eat something. An Apple, really. But when she took the first bite, her stomach gave an unpleasant twist. She gagged and spat out the apple piece. A vile taste boiled in her mouth, almost metallic but with a puke like taste.

When it came to Sunday, it was a lot worse than Saturday.

Sakura found herself pacing in her room. Worry written across her face. She knew for a definite she would be picked on, but that wasn't the centre of her thoughts. It was about her old class mates.

She was going to _die_.

Before she had left Konoha, her parents raised a hell storm with the old school head teacher about the paint incident. It was the first and only time she let her parents intervene in her personal matters. Needless to say, the students got in a lot of trouble for that. She didn't know how angry they would be at her, but she assumed they'd be pretty pissed off.

That led to another thought; they would beat her up for it. They would be sure to recognise her and maybe even go as far as to put her in hospital. Sakura cringed at the thought. She'd been beaten up plenty times at Iwagakure, but never in Konoha.

The moment she were to set foot on the school property, she was sure they'd charge at her and beat her to a pulp before calling her nasty names.

Sakura's eyes visibly widened as a thought crashed through all other negative ones.

_Sasuke._

Her heart began to pound wildly as she stopped pacing abruptly. Sasuke Uchiha, he'd be attending the same high school as she would be going to. Or at lest she thought so. What was he going to say when he saw her? Would he laugh at her again?

Sakura sniffed, blinking back tears. But she held onto one thought, the one thought that kept her moving on. It was her only hope.

It had been ten years. Plenty of time for someone to loose a grudge against her. _Maybe_ they didn't remember her. Maybe she could go unnoticed until high school is finally over. Maybe, just maybe she could at least make one friend.

Sakura gnawed her lip, for her, something as big as that was unrealistic and just a fantasy. She was going to be the new kid if she liked it or not. And even though she didn't like it, she was going to get unwanted attention, all new kids got that. But after a few weeks that would die down. She was just going to have to put up with people staring for awhile, she was used to that.

Sakura sighed and plopped down onto her bed.

She still wished she was an Uchiha. Even today.

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When it rolled around to Monday morning, Sakura was in a very bad mood and scurried around her room in a frenzy. She'd barely gotten any sleep, but that wasn't a big surprise. She had already showered but that was the easiest part of her day.

Right now, however, she dashed around her room like a mad woman, ripping clothes out of drawers and wardrobes, splashing them over her messy bed.

Her heart was beating frantically, panic washing through her in long tremors. She shook as she ripped the last piece of clothing out of the last set of drawers. Sakura's breathing hitched, eyes wide as she looked through the now empty drawer.

It couldn't be. Sakura felt like she died, came back to life and died all over again. This was horrible. She couldn't believe it.

Her old clothes were nowhere in sight. No baggy clothes at all. Sakura shook, she didn't know what to do. She'd only ever worn baggy clothes. It could only mean one thing, her mother forgot to pack her own clothes but Sakura knew her mother never forgets. She couldn't have done it on purpose, right?

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she thought for a second. She could have worn the clothes she came here in, but they needed washed and she didn't exactly want to start at her new high school completely smelling of her own odour.

Her knees bucked and she hit the floor. She was defeated, there was no way she could go to school now. Some part of her wanted to go though. A very, very small part.

Sakura shook her head. She'd already made a promise. She promised her parents she'd go to school, since she'd already missed a year and a half of her old school.

"Damn it…" Sakura whispered in a shaky voice.

With a new found confidence, Sakura pushed off the floor and darted for he bed, clawing through the mountain of clothes. There had to be something remotely baggy here somewhere.

Eventually, Sakura did indeed find a slightly baggy top. But not like her other tops, this one didn't cling to her body so it would have to do, plus it wasn't a flashy colour like her bright hair, it was a dark red. It was a simple top, no fancy design on it or frilly pattern. With slight more luck, she came across a big but thin jacket with a hood. She quietly thanked the heavens that it had a hood, now she had a fighting chance of getting through her first day. The jacket was black, though luckily it wasn't thick, it was thin and had a soft texture to it.

Sakura had less luck finding a pair of trousers. All she came across was shorts, skirts and even shorter skirts. But there was also the jeans she wasn't too keen on. She was never one for skinny jeans.

A loud beep outside caused her to jump in fright. Her head snapped in the direction of the window.

Terrible timing.

Earlier that day her father had called, asking if she wanted to take the limo to school. Of course she would never want to do that and declined the offer, so her father had suggested for her to get a taxi. She was more than happy with that, that way she could fit in a little bit. Even though that was a tiny part.

Sakura grumbled to herself. She had no choice in the matter now.

She quickly got dressed, reluctantly putting on the blue skinny jeans before zipping her jacket all the way to the top. Brushing back her long pink hair, she tied it up into a high ponytail before stuffing it inside her hood and pulling it over her head.

Sakura didn't need to worry about finding shoes, seeing as she came there with a perfectly comfortable pair of converse shoes.

Now it was time for the hard part.

_Going to school_.

Sakura sighed shakily, clenching and unclenching her sweaty palms. Repeating the words her mother would often tell her, she breathed.

"Keep your head up high…"

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**A/N: I would like to say, after this chapter thing will start to speed up a bit:3 But anyway, thank you for reading!**

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	4. The First Day

**Ah! 6 reviews on my last chapter:3! I never expected so much! Thank you, thank you, thank you!**

**Thank you to the new reviewers- **_**Tuliharja (**_**about your review, I have 'something' like that in mind, but I'm not letting anything away just yet:3), **_**Tikai **_**(I suppose you have a point haha, I should feel happier with my eyes, but I'm going to keep blaming my sister for calling me alien eyes when I was little, but thank you so much:3),**_** blackdog19**_** (I'm going to take that as a positive thing haha), **_**Myguiltypleasure **_**(don't worry! I'll definitely be continuing until the end), **_**'guest' **_**(I will be taking that as a good thing) and lastly _trueblue51 _(thank you so much for your reviews and your support over the story! You have and the rest of my reviews have put my confidence through the roof!)**

**I just want to say, thank you so, so, so much. You have no idea how much of a confidence booster you've given me in this story! Aaaaaahhh! Thank you!**

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**~Chapter 4: The First Day~**

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She heisted.

Every fibre of her body itched at her to run away. But she hesitated. Almost glued to the spot. She seemed paralyzed with fear. Emerald orbs wider than dish plates. Her clammy hands fiddled with the zipper of her jacket.

She reminded herself to breathe, momentarily forgetting how to.

Sakura felt like she was about to enter the bowls of hell, already fearing she was caught in the snare of some old malevolent demon, ready to pounce her. She trembled, her hand gingerly lifting to grip the door handle.

She swallowed.

She could do this. She's done it before, she could do it again. She's gotten this far, it would be a waste to give up now.

Sakura breathed shallowly, taking one, two breaths before twisting the knob and pushing open the door.

She didn't enter straight away. After having paint poured over her at the age of 7, she'd had a small fear of entering doorways. Even at home. Sakura quietly glanced up, eyeing the top of the door, or looking for some string as if someone were going to douse her in paint again. Though, it was probably just paranoia getting to her.

Sakura tugged her hood further over her head, making sure no hair was revealed.

"Ah," a smooth voice said. Sakura glanced up through the shield of her hood. It was a man. He wore a kind smile, the corners of his eyes wrinkling like crows feet. For a moment, Sakura felt shock drain away her fear. He had a visible scar going horizontally across the bridge of his nose. "You must be the new kid, come in, come in."

Sakura heisted again as the man ushered her into the classroom. She found her feet move on their own, walking into the lightly lit room. She chewed her lip as she stepped next to the person with the scar across his nose.

This was her first class of the day, and what she remembered from her timetable. It was math. She was fairly good at that, as well as most of her subjects.

The man cleared his throat and introduced himself as Iruka Umino before turning to the class. "Everyone," he called out. Sakura stiffened, allowing a peak up. A sigh of relief escaped her, most of the students weren't paying attention. They were ether gathered in small groups chatting away, or others were scribbling and doodling on their jotters. "This is Sakura Haruno, make sure you all make her feel welcome."

Still, no one spared her a glance. And she was happy. Iruka motioned for her to find a seat and she did just that, finding herself, like many other times, in the corner next to the window.

Sakura breathed out as she sat, swinging her bag lightly around and placed it on the desk in front of her. Class should begin any moment now.

Something caught Sakura's attention not long after she had taken her place. Her eyes flickered to Iruka, who was sitting at his desk and going through some documents. Her eyes then flickered to the side where her curiosity spiked.

She couldn't see directly what it was, but it was a voice. A high, shrill of a voice. Sakura chewed down on her lip hard, holding in the laugh at the funny voice.

But what they were talking about caused a cold rush to splash over her, running down her back and raising the hairs across her body. Anxiety began to set in, sweat forming on her brow as she tried to shrink back in her seat. Her breathing began to accelerate.

"Did you see it?!" cried out the squeaky voice "I bet it was some rich man, coming to sweep me away!"

There was a snort from someone else. "Yeah, right." came their bored reply. "The only thing that'll be getting swept away is your allowance."

There was a pregnant pause followed by an audible gasp. "Take that back! Shikamaru, I'm warning you-"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I get it."

The breath in Sakura's throat cut off. Her eyes widened again. She knew that name. _Shikamaru_. It couldn't be the Shikamaru she's thinking of, right? The boy with the pineapple shaped hairdo? No. it couldn't be.

Sakura began to fumble with her hands. Nerves wracking her body.

"But did you see it? I've never seen a limo that _**long**_ before! Seriously, I demand to know who was inside it." the squeaky voice perked up after awhile, a dreamy tone in the owners voice. "I bet it's a guy."

Sakura swallowed, clenching her eyes shut. She had an inkling who the squeaky voice belonged to, but pushed with all her might and strength to burry it deep in her mind.

"In your head, every person that owns a limo _has_ to be a guy." came another voice, sounding rather irritated. "Why cant a girl own a limo? Girls are just as good as guys you know."

Sakura tugged at her jacket, wishing the voices would shut up. They were making her extremely nervous, not to mention she'd become stiffer than a brick. Probably because this 'limo' they were talking about, was most likely the one she came to Konoha in.

"Tenten's right, you know? It could be a girl." came the dull reply of what Sakura assumed to be Shikamaru.

"It has to be a guy though!" cried out the other voice "I've not met one girl that owns a limo!"

"It was only a thought, Ino. No need to have a conniption."

Sakura visibly paled, eyes snapping open as they bugged out. Her stomach gave a nasty churn and she tasted bile in her throat as she tried to stop herself from heaving.

It truly was a bad start to her day.

* * *

Lunch time came faster than Sakura could blink. And she found herself in the familiar routine she'd grown accustom to. Hiding the girls bathroom. She sat inside a cubical furthest away from the door, clutching her bag to her chest for dear life.

She'd survived so far, shocking her to the core. No one has called her a name yet, or dubbed a new nickname. But there was still plenty of time for that, after all, there was still two more periods left before the end of the school day.

Sakura sighed and opened up her bag, taking out a bottle of water. Opened it, and took a small sip.

She was worried and her head spun dizzily.

Ino Yamanaka, her former tormentor, was in the same math class as her. Nothing had stopped her running out, but something rooted her to the spot. None of them had noticed her so far, so why run just yet?

Sakura didn't want to be anywhere near her. She couldn't stand it. She knew it was only a matter of time before Ino found out it was her, though she still clung to the hope that she'd forgotten about her. She was, in a sense, still terrified of the blond girl.

As Sakura soon found out, so far Ino was in two classes with her. Both first and second period. Second period being communications, which she was more than lucky to find she'd gone unnoticed again.

But Ino's loud voice freaked her out. She didn't know anyone could talk so much, or so loudly ether.

Sakura hadn't come across anyone else that used to bully her, so she was pleased so far. Though it still meant nothing, she might even find a gang of her old bullies in her next class. She shivered at the thought, clutching her bag even tighter.

Sakura wondered through most of her morning, when she eventually blocked out the chatter of Ino, where was Sasuke? It not that she wanted to see him, or ogle him (though she was curious to how he looked now) no, she wondered if he even went to this school.

This was a local school after all. It didn't seem fitting if he went to a local school. He was an Uchiha after all, it would seem fitting if he had gone to a private school.

Sakura pulled the thoughts out her head and focused on something else. She had two more periods left, hopefully she'd get through them unnoticed. It was only art and biology. She could manage that.

'_it'll be a breeze…'_ she sarcastically thought to herself.

She grimaced, wrinkling her nose. But she still had the rest of the week, and the rest of the year… the only day she was really dreading was Tuesday. Tomorrow. She'd have to do P.E. Sakura was more than positive they wouldn't allow her to wear her hood in that class. She could only pray. Her luck was bound to run out sooner or later however.

Hopefully not any time soon.

She huffed. Lunch will probably last awhile. If she remembers correctly, Sakura found lunch to be the most stressful time of the day. After all, she hid away in a small cubical counting down the seconds for the bell to ring. It was agonising. She often felt like she was stuck in there for hours.

She was just more than happy that no one knew that's where she hid between intervals.

The most she could do within the cubical is go over notes she'd learned that day, or read boring textbooks. Sometimes she'd even bring a sketch book in with her so she could doodle on. On one occasion she got so bored she even managed to memorize half the dictionary.

She sighed, bobbing her feet up and down and began to chew her nails. Just three more hours and she'd be safe again. Safe to read all the books she pleased and no more annoying students.

Sakura's thought were cut in two when she heard a loud squeal of the girls bathroom door being opened. She tensed, drawing her feet up onto the toilet in hopes of not being noticed. Gulping, she shifted her body into a more comfortable position, trying to be as quiet as possible.

The soft patter of feet led way into the bathroom, followed by a heavy sigh.

"My hair never sit's the way I want it to…" grumbled a voice.

A spark shot through Sakura and she held in a groan of despair. It was almost like she was secretly taunting her. Ino. She could have sworn Ino was personally trying to shake her up by popping up out of nowhere. But there was no way she was going to let herself get caught just yet. She just had to stay quiet and still.

She could manage that.

"Your hair's fine, Ino." came a soft voice, almost soothing. Sakura blinked. That voice didn't scare her for some reason. Frowning, she listened more closely.

"Easy for you to say." mumbled the voice of Ino. "I sometimes think you're wearing a wig, seriously, how do you get your hair to sit straight all day?"

There was a gentle laugh. "I'm not sure…" the other voice replied nervously.

"Come on, Hinata…"

"Why are you smiling at me like that?"

"Tell me your secret, it's not natural to have hair that straight."

Sakura held in her gasp, clasping a hand over her mouth.

_Hinata_?

Why would she be attending a public school? Sakura's mind buzzed. She knew a girl named Hinata when she was younger, Hinata Hyuga if she was correct. She wasn't one of her bullies, but she wasn't one of her friends ether. She was an extremely shy girl that kept to herself. Why would she mix herself up a bully? Was she a bully now?

In Sakura's mind, Hinata could never fit in with the bullies. She was too sweet natured to give harm to other people. She wished there was more people like Hinata. It would make victims like Sakura at a lot more ease, as well as the many other people who are bullied.

Her thoughts were brought back to the local school and just like the Uchiha's, the Hyuga's are a very respectable family, one of the richest in Konoha along side the Uchiha's. It seemed strange for a Hyuga to be in a public school whereas a private school would suit them a lot better.

Who else was at this school?

Sakura cringed when the image of an idiotic blond boy flashed through her mind. She definitely hoped he _wasn't_ at this school. She'd probably become his guinea pig again and be a walking target, not to mention all those horrible pranks…

"So what about that new kid?" Ino asked, from the other side of the cubical. Sakura's head snapped up. "I've not seen him around _anywhere_!"

A soft giggle, which Sakura assumed came from Hinata. "How do you know it's not a girl?"

"I just got a feeling." Ino laughed. "Hopefully a rich guy."

Sakura held back vomit. That's all she heard Ino talk about so far in her first two classes. It was all about the mystery limo owner but she never mentioned once about the new kid- Sakura.

She had already been in two of her classes, how could no one notice her? Not that she wanted to be noticed, she just found it a bit odd. Though she was more than happy she hadn't been dubbed by a new nickname, it should have happened by now already. But why hadn't it?

"I think she was in my history class last period," mused Hinata "I'm not sure, I'm sure she was."

There was a long pause, followed by the noise of something rattling. "How can _you_ be sure it's a girl?" spoke Ino.

Sakura began to fidget on the closed toilet seat, scratching her arm nervously. Had she been found out this soon? She didn't remember Hinata being in her last class, but then again, she didn't remember what she even looked like. The only thing she did remember was she had pale eyes.

"Well," Sakura heard Hinata gulp loudly "I'm not _sure_, but I'm confident the new student looked like a girl. The person was wearing a black hooded jumper and had a feminine build, but I never caught the name. I was a little late for class…"

Ino snorted and Sakura heard the tap being turned on. She strained to hear over the loudly running water. "Hmm…" hummed Ino "Yeah, but it's not like we've seen a feminine guy before. Put Shikamaru in a jumper and he'd look the part."

Hinata giggled. "I suppose you're right."

"Now all we need to do is find this black hooded mystery man,"

"I don't like the way you're smiling, Ino…"

"I have chemistry next and biology last, what have you got next?"

"I have art then biology."

Sakura jerked unintentionally. She gasped, her water bottle tipping off her lap and hitting the floor. She froze, heart pounding loudly in her chest. She was done for now. They were going to find out.

"What was that?" spoke Ino.

Sakura could have burst into tears at any moment, a pair of feet walked over to her cubical, enough for Sakura to spy under the doorframe. She began to shake when she spotted a pale hand reach under.

'_No, no, no, no, no…'_

Suddenly, there was loud crashing noise followed by multiple voices shouting. The hand froze and began to retreat. More crashes and bangs were heard from outside the girls bathroom. Sakura's heart began to slow down as the feet disappeared from her view.

"What's going-"

Hinata's voice was cut off as some shouted over her from outside. "Fight!" the voice hollered.

"Oooh~ Lets go check this out!" giggled Ino.

Sakura listed to the retreating footsteps and listened as the girls door was thrust open with a loud groan and heavily slammed shut.

She sighed. Placing a hand over her heart and another on her flushed cheek. That was way too close. The gods must be on her side today.

Allowing a small smile of relief, she stood up and quickly picked up her fallen bottle before harshly shoving it deep within her bag. It was probably a good idea to hide somewhere else for the time being, she didn't want another risk like that happening again.

* * *

Sakura had decided to leave school early. She knew if she went to her art class Hinata would discover her. Or worse, run off to Ino and tell her the big news. But it didn't fit Hinata to do something so mean like that. Or she hoped she wasn't like that.

She didn't know what she would do for tomorrow, if she skips class more than once her parents are sure to find out. The only thing she could really do is power through it. She got off easy today, but that didn't mean it was always going to be like that. Everyone will find out, one way or another. It was just a waiting game.

Sakura sighed as she slipped into her bedroom and fell back on her bed. It was good though, surprising even. She was surprised she lasted four periods before chickening out. It was an accomplishment, a stressful one, but still an accomplishment.

She rolled onto her side, kicking off her shoes and grabbed Jennifer and hugged her close. Sakura wished she was more confident, she wished she had the voice to lift her opinions and make friends. But that seemed more than impossible for her demeanour overshadowed her. It stopped her progress.

In her eyes, she was just too ugly to make friends.

Any confidence she gained seemed to always be gobbled up by her inner demons. Was it so wrong of her to wish she was someone else? She'd fantasize about it almost constantly. She fantasize she was some beautiful girl with millions and millions of friends and that _one_ guy.

But there would never be someone just for her. Someone to love her as she loves them. She would be insane if she thought there was someone out there.

Her mother used to tell her about 'soul mates' and how they could be right under your nose or living next-door. She believed that for a good long time, but that dream was quickly slaughtered by her low self esteem.

Everyone wants that one person, even if they say they don't, deep down, they do. And even Sakura wants it, though she refuses to believe in the fantasy any more. But people today go for looks and not personality. Sakura hates that, it makes her situation a lot more worse.

What was that saying again?

_Beauty lies within?_ or was it _beauty is in the eye of the beholder?_

Sakura crawled up to her pillows with Jessica in hand and crawled into a ball. No one would ever see Sakura as beautiful. Crying over it would be pointless, and wishing for it would be stupid. On one can make her beautiful, not even herself.

"If only I was an Uchiha. Then I can be beautiful all the time…"

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**I'm so sorry if there's any spelling errors and too much OOCness!**

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	5. Down Goes The Hood

**Thank you to my dear reviewers for reviewing me!:3**

_**BloodyAyame23**_** (that makes me so happy that you said that! You have no idea! Ah, you're so sweet!:3)**

_**Trueblue51**_** (****hahaha! Yey cookie! And thank you so much!)**

_**Tuliharja **_**(I'm intending for Ino to sound kinda like that haha:3)**

_**AmyKpd**_** (Haha, I'm glad you like it so much:3 and don't worry, I'll let you on in a little secret, emo duck butt will be in the next chapter!)**

**Thank you everyone! That includes the nice people who have put me on favourite and alert!**

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**~Chapter 5: Down Goes The Hood~**

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If she thought yesterday was bad, today was excruciatingly worse. Her heart was ready to leap out of her chest, its never beat so fast before. If she wasn't frozen to the spot, she'd already have ran away by now. She couldn't believe it. She didn't even want to look down at herself. She felt ashamed and she didn't know why.

Sakura lifted her shaky hands to zip up her jacket, pulling her hood over her head as she tucked in her bubblegum pink hair. She began to fiddle with the lower part of her jacket, trying to stretch it and make it longer.

She really couldn't believe it.

Sakura's first period class was P.E. The one class she was dreading but knew if she skipped again her parents would definitely be informed. It made it worse knowing there was a school dress code for that certain class. And she wasn't proud to say she was wearing it unlike most of the girls she heard.

Lucky for Sakura, she kept herself hidden in the bathroom next to the changing room and no one had heard her go in or noticed her. She never liked getting changed in front of other people, it made her uncomfortable and didn't understand how all the other girls could do it. Did they like almost flashing themselves in front of each other?

Sakura cringed at the thought. Grimacing, she began to tug at the overly tiny shorts, this time trying to stretch them seeing as her jacket wasn't giving her the satisfaction.

She wanted to burn the P.E uniform. It was unflattering, well, she thought so anyway. It was tight fitting and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't hide her body or the flesh that showed. It was a bright red colour and stopped just below the thighs, even though it was tight fitting, she was surprised it was extremely stretchy and she could move around without thinking she'd rip them if she bent over. Still, the shorts shouldn't be even classed as shorts, it was more like a belt.

The top wasn't any better. It was the same colour as the shorts, with the Konoha leaf symbol scrawled across the left side of her chest. It hugged her body tightly, which she was extremely unpleased about. There was literally nothing for her to hide behind. They might as well send her into class naked, it would probably feel the same as she does now.

But still. No matter how stretchy it was, it made her feel uncomfortable to just be wearing them. If anything, she felt terribly self-conscious, she'd never worn something outrageous like this before.

Really, what had she gotten herself into? Maybe she should have skipped class…

Sakura inwardly groaned. She prayed to heaven the teacher would allow her to keep her jacket on. The last thing she wanted was to be stared at when she was doing something physical. She hated the way her body moved when she exercised, even when she would run on the treadmill or even when she was lifting weights, she cringed every time. But when she did that, there was no one around to look at her, whereas this time around people would see her.

She really hates P.E…

Sakura rubbed her nose irritably and she wondered to herself, was Ino going to be in this class with her again? She hoped not. What about Hinata? Would she be there? What if all her tormentors were in the same room? They'd gang up on her for sure, assuming she did have to take her hood down of course.

"All right! My youthful students!" bellowed a voice, echoing through to the bathroom. Sakura gulped, class had already started. "Today we have a new student with us!" she cringed at the overly enthusiastic voice. She was nothing to be hyper over. Or maybe the person was genuinely like that? "Ah, where is…?"

Sakura's knees wobbled. Maybe she could slip into the class unnoticed? She was doing fine so far.

It took ten minutes of debating by herself to finally pull herself together. But she still hesitated to move out of the girls bathroom. Sakura had placed her bag in one of the cubical, shoving it behind one of the toilets just in case.

She was about to exit when someone harshly threw the door open. Sakura squeaked. Stumbling, her back hit the bathroom sink as she regained her footing. She quickly regained her composure after, standing up straight and trying to hide any sign of pink hair.

She peaked up from under her hood. And what she saw, she could have screamed, but she held it back.

There, stood with arms crossed in front of her, was a grinning Ino Yamanaka. Sakura inwardly grimaced, she was the last person she wanted to be stuck in a room with. Let alone a bathroom.

Ino's hip stuck out on one side as she placed her hand onto it. Does Ino know it's her? Sakura tried to dislodge the lump in her throat. "Hello there" she coyly spoke, ocean blue eyes sparkling with a strange emotion. It was unnerving for Sakura, she couldn't help but cringe.

Sakura tried to step around her as Ino advanced on her. Her heart began to thunder and for a moment she swore even Ino could hear it. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment before replacing itself with fear as Ino allowed her index finger to travel up Sakura's abdomen and straight up to her chin.

She shivered under the touch, causing a large grin to spread onto Ino's face. She flicked long blond hair and leaned in. "Do you like it when I touch you? _Big boy_…" she purred.

Sakura snapped out of fear, confusion sprouting. But before she even realised it, she ducked under Ino as she was about to wrap her arms around Sakura.

"N-no!" stuttered Sakura, darting for the door. "Leave me alone!"

Sakura ran off to the gym area at lightning speed, completely oblivious to Ino's shocked and disgruntled expression.

Ether Ino thought she was a guy. Or she was clearly a lesbian. Sakura liked the first one.

* * *

Sakura had hoped she'd gone unnoticed, but she just didn't seem to have her own way this time. Her tolerance of being around people had begun to wear thinner than ever. If only there was a large black hole to swallow her whole at that moment.

This wasn't what she wanted.

She didn't even realise how loud she was when she dashed through the doors into the gym hall. Sakura thought she had been quiet, but the way everyone turned to look around to her proved herself wrong.

Actually, she was extremely loud when she barged through the door, trying to get away from Ino. Sakura had frozen in place when a tall man appeared in front of her. She didn't even blink and then 'poof' he was there. Nerves shot through her back when he attempted, which more or less felt forced, to put a hand on her shoulder.

Sakura had twitched and jerked unintentionally under his touch until he finally let go and gently pushed her toward the centre of all the other students.

"Well aren't we very youthful today!" the man had shouted, almost popping Sakura's poor eardrums. She tried peaking up, but he seemed too tall and if she tried to crane her neck back she feared her hood would fall down.

She felt the eyes of people on her, looking her up and down. She was disgusted and her stomach gave a nasty twist. Her fingers began to shake as the tall and energetic man, which she assumed to be the teacher, blabbed on about something along the lines of 'youthfulness' and some other things.

He stood behind her, close enough that she could practically _feel_ positive energy leaking from him.

But somehow she just knew the other students weren't paying attention to him. They were more focused on her.

Her heart pounded harshly against her ribs, eyes widening under the hood. Her breath became shallow and every noise seemed to make her twitch. From someone coughing, sniffing or even from hearing the distant twitter of birds outside.

"Miss?" said the loud man, leaning down in front of her, level with her covered face.

Sakura had to hold in her snort of laughter. She hadn't seen a man look so… _'interesting'_ before. He had thick eyebrows that practically almost covered at least half of his forehead. Accompanying that were small round eyes and high cheek bones and a hairstyle that shouldn't be allowed legal. A bowl cut. He certainly was strange looking.

But she herself, was not someone who should judge others.

"I didn't seem catch your name, would you like to tell me? You see it hasn't been processed on my register yet" he flashed her a toothy grin and Sakura could have sworn they sparkled.

Sakura opened her mouth to speak but she couldn't find the words to pass her lips. She mentally kicked herself. It was just a teacher, he wouldn't be the one doing the bullying. Or she hoped not. That would be new if that did happen.

She shook her bad thoughts away, trying to steady herself. She took a long breath, trying to get the words out. She did, after a few short moments. Though it sounded strained and odd like she'd just been strangled.

"S-Sakura Haruno…" she rasped out quietly, low enough for only the teacher to hear.

She breathed a sigh of relief when he backed off and began speaking about 'youthfulness' all over again. He had also introduced himself as Maito Gai. Sakura hadn't been paying much attention after she'd given her name. She was mentally counting down the seconds until this was all over. She was just glad he hadn't shouted her name out.

He went on talking about the summer break and was welcoming everyone back and how today everyone will be participating in a random bunch of exercises. That went from using skipping ropes, running around the large gym hall, sit ups, push ups, jumping jacks and so on the list. He wanted everyone to have a shot at everything.

But first of all, for some reason, he wanted everyone to participate in the long jump first. For reasons even Sakura couldn't understand. It didn't really fit in with the lesson, was it some sort of trick? Or was it to tell to see who needed the most help?

Sakura sighed heavily and tried to push to the back of the crowd of students, keeping her head down low.

Maybe she could sneak out. He must have scored her on his register, well, written her name down so it stated she was in class. How hard could it be to slip off unnoticed? She was sure it wouldn't be too bad, she could hide out until her next class and no one would even tell she was gone.

Sakura edged closer and closer to the exit of the hall, taking slow and steady steps.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" said a voice from behind her. Sakura squeaked, spinning around, bringing her arms up to her chest. Sakura blinked as someone poked their face to hers.

From what she could make out, it was a girl around her high, maybe a few inches taller, with brown hair in a pair of cute buns followed by chocolate brown eyes. Sakura blinked again as the girl squinted at her. Lucky for Sakura her hair was securely tucked away.

The girl placed her hands on her hips and leaned forward, quirking an eyebrow at the pinkette. Sakura nervously fiddled with her hands, trying to shake off her nerves. Was she in trouble?

"Are you planning on skipping?" she enquired, straightening up to cross her arms as her brows knitted together.

"N-no…" Sakura stuttered, falling over her tongue.

"Come now my youthful students! Line up!"

* * *

Sakura didn't know exactly what happened. One moment ago she was talking to the brown haired girl and now she was in a straight formed line. She cursed herself. She didn't want to do the long jump _and_ be watched by the entire class.

She gazed longingly at the exit, contemplating making a mad dash for it. What's the worst that could happen? Someone would catch her? It's not like they'd physically stop her, right? She gnawed her lower lip, fingers twitching and ready to move.

And she was about to leg it like a crazed person. That was until her teacher had stepped in front of her. Sakura stopped herself and glanced up wearily, like he knew her plans of escaping.

He was grinning at her, hands on his hips as he spoke. "Now why don't we take that hood down? Need to be fully focused for the long jump, don't need it getting in the way!" he had stuck one of his thumbs up midway through his sentence, flashing his teeth.

Sakura's eyes widened and her heart gave a painful pound. She was beginning to think she was getting away with it too. "N-"

Her eyes widened even further as Gai stepped forward, gripping the top of her hood with a happy smile. "Here, let me help you!"

She gasped as her hood fell back, completely paralyzed.

A new wave of fear hit her.

Everyone was looking at her.

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**Sorry if it's a little short! Also I'm really sorry if this is a crappy chapter, I'll make it up to you in the next!**

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	6. Unexpected

**I never updated yesterday as it was my birthday! **

**Just letting everyone know!:3**

**A big thank you to;**

_**AmyKpd**_

_**Tuliharja**_

_**Trueblue51**_

_**SasuSakuKawaii**_

_**Aimii0**_

_**Meriamdz **_

_**And of course Tikai!**_

**Thank you guys soooo much, you're really so awesome! I'm honestly so happy with all the positive feedback, aah! Thank you!**

**Another big thank you to all the lovely people who have put me on favourite and on alert! **

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**~Unexpected~**

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Have you ever felt like you were sinking?

Or felt like you were drowning with weights attached to your legs?

That's only a small fraction to what Sakura is feeling. It was like the whole world was crashing in on her, like all the oxygen had been sucked from existence and was leaving her breathless.

Her wide, unblinking vibrant green eyes wavered and were unfocused. Everything in view slowly zoned out like looking through a long tunnel and began to blur. It was like her whole body had gone numb. Like she had been left out in the coldest of winters to slowly and painfully freeze to death.

She wanted to cry out. But somehow she lost her voice somewhere.

Sakura trembled, wishing a black hole would swallow her up and disappear from the world.

"Pink hair?"

Her heart pounded as the first voice to speak echoed through the large hall. The first to comment on her. If possible, her eyes widened even more. More murmurs and whispered broke through the agonising silence.

Her vision came rushing back and she gasped. She noticed everyone staring at her, giving her weird and odd looks. Sakura didn't give herself enough time to realise if they were judgemental, her head had fallen down the moment she realised.

The familiar lump in her throat returned and she wanted to cry. But somehow, her body wouldn't _allow_ her.

She tightly closed her eyes, ready to be bombarded with insults upon insults. What would it be this time? She'd found herself wondering.

Would it be ugly?

Smelly or stinky?

Forehead girl?

Spotty?

Greasy?

Freak?

Fatty or piggy?

Sakura indeed had lost a lot of weight over the past few years, but still, she still felt overweight and flabby. No matter how much weight she had lost, she felt uncomfortable in her own skin. There was of course, at the beginning when she started to exercise, the sudden increase of confidence. But it always seemed to fall flat as the negative thoughts continued to creep back into her mind.

She wondered for a long, long time- how do you be confident? How do you make yourself confident? There were girls and boys her age, and older and younger who physically had over portioned sizes to their body and they were confident and happy. How could they be so confident?

Wasn't confidence in looking beautiful? Looking perfect? Oh, why? Why couldn't she be perfect and beautiful? Why cant she be confident and have friends that adore her?

Though even here, people continued to stare at her. She hoped that would have been different. Maybe, just maybe after all those years she'd been away, that everyone could possibly accept her in the place she grew up. Was it so much to ask?

Sakura's mind clouded as she reopened her eyes. Her knees wobbled unsteadily as the room around her began to spin, physically making her want to vomit. She felt light headed and her body began to sway.

_It's was happening again…_

A veil of pink hair hid her horrified and fearful face. Sweat covered her brow and a cold chill brushed across her body. Her body became tenser as her shoulders hunched and she ducked her head lower.

_It cant happen again…_

Sakura's breathing became more erratic, coming out heavily and becoming louder and quicker. The room began to spin even more and her stomach threatened to regurgitate any remaining food in her stomach.

Her clammy and sweaty hands shakily reached up her head, gripping at her hair as she gave nasty tugs as if it would settle the panic she was feeling.

She whimpered quietly, her nails digging into her scalp sharply. But it wasn't pain she was feeling, she was numb. Her chest heaved quicker and quicker. Black blotches filling her vision as she stared at the brown wooden floor.

Sakura begged herself, screaming internally not to pass out and to calm down. Everything seemed out of her control though, like her body had a mind of its own. She couldn't just tell herself to calm down, that's never worked before. Though she knew exactly what was happening; a panic attack. It could have been much worse. She was surprised she was still standing.

The hum of voices seemed so distant now. Her heart pounded in her ears, blocking out voices as if they were physically attacking her.

And that's when something happened. Something Sakura hadn't realised until something ice cold had wrapped around her wrists, shaking her out of her trance like state.

"Snap out of it, will ya?!" the distant voice cried, shouting out more words and became louder with each syllable.

Sakura didn't know what was happening, but when her body finally allowed her to look up she had pulled away from the cold touch as if it burned her. Pulling her fingers out of her hair and ripping her nails out of her scalp. She stumbled back, falling on her bottom in the process.

She had to blink a few times with tired eyes as everything came back into focus. Sakura was greatly confused.

Hadn't she been in the hall?

Her head spun around as she took in her surroundings. She was in a large room, full of lockers and benches. She guessed that this was the changing rooms, by the looks of all the lockers. What else could it be?

But what surprised her even more was the person who was now kneeling in front of her. The last person she expected to be kneeling anywhere near her. Also the person she'd ran from not too long ago.

Ino Yamanaka.

Her lower lip quivered and she flinched when the blond tried to place a cool hand on Sakura's forehead. It hadn't gone unnoticed ether. She earned an annoyed expression from Ino as she plopped onto her bum and folded her arms.

"You know, you _could_ thank me." she muttered, her ocean blue eyes looking off into the distance. "I did drag you butt out of there before you had a melt down in front of everyone."

Sakura looked up at Ino with shock, her jaw falling slack, creating a small 'o'.

Had Ino saved her? _The_ Ino Yamanaka? It couldn't be. Ino had never done it in the past, why would she now? Maybe because Sakura was the new girl, Ino would be praised for helping. There isn't any other logical explanation for her to do it. Ino _hated_ Sakura. Didn't she?

Ino turned to look back at Sakura, raising a delicate blond eyebrow. "No 'thanks Ino, you really saved my ass out there' or are you going to continue to ignore me?" she spoke, her voice sounding higher.

There was a pregnant pause before Ino rolled her eyes and leaned back on her hands, popping out her overly developed chest. Sakura diverted herself to look away, she wasn't too thrilled with the sudden situation she'd landed herself in. Actually, she wasn't exactly sure what was going on.

What was she supposed to say to her? She didn't even know what to say. Reminisce on how Ino used to bully and humiliate her? It's not exactly what Sakura would call a nice time.

"So…" said Ino, looking around awkwardly.

Sakura eyed her cautiously, as if Ino were going to pounce on her at any moment. Who knows? She could even try to beat her up, what's to stop her? Sakura isn't exactly built to fight.

But there was something else disrupting Sakura's thoughts.

Why had Ino really helped her?

And why was she talking to her?

Something didn't feel right to her. She just couldn't put her finger on it.

Ino's head suddenly snapped in Sakura's direction, eyes narrowing into a scowl. Sakura cringed, expected her to lash out and call her a bunch of names.

"I thought you were a guy, you jerk!" she squealed angrily. Sakura blinked, dumbfound. That's why she was looking at her like that? "I-I _flirted_ with _you_! Why the hell didn't you tell me?!"

Ino continued to ramble on, leaving Sakura in a state of shock. Ino was telling her off, not making fun of her? There's a first time for everything, right? Sakura chewed her lip nervously, she really had no idea what was going on but she _didn't_ want to be there.

Ino may not be insulting her just yet, but that doesn't mean Sakura's forgotten all those times she used to pick on her. She could never forgive her for that. Even if what Ino says is true, it's meaningless.

Sakura swallowed, hard.

Ino could have just left her there to humiliate herself. She could have left her under the judgement of the other students. All she could ask herself was; _why?_

After Ino had continued ranting, she let out a long and deep huff and leaned forward, crossing her arms once again. "And when did you get back anyway? I heard you were gone for good."

Sakura looked away, lowering her eyes sadly. She only wished she was gone forever. If it wasn't for her parents sending her here, she would have tried her best to stay away for as long as she lived.

What could she say toward the matter? She's never exactly spoken to Ino before, besides crying and blubbering in front of her and begging her to leave her alone or to stop laughing or whatever. She's never had a conversation with her and she never planned to ether. It didn't make her in the least bit comfortable.

How could she speak to her after everything she's done? After the last thing she did? Sakura still felt embarrassment and shame every time she thought about it and she didn't even know why.

"Well…?"

Sakura hesitated for a moment before opening her mouth, she didn't look at Ino. Instead she chose to stare at the ground. When she was about to say something, her throat sudden became swollen, choking off her words.

She snapped her jaw shut.

"Fine then, don't talk to me." snapped Ino, turning away with a childish pout.

* * *

Not long after Sakura's encounter with Ino, she didn't stay long enough to stick around to what else she had to say. And by the way Ino was looking at her, she had a _lot_ to say. It had unnerved Sakura. She didn't know what else to do besides try and get out of the situation.

Though that hadn't stopped Ino from trying follow her or shout after her.

It didn't take Sakura long to get away. She didn't know the exact lay out of the school, she did have a rough idea though.

Sakura had ran around aimlessly for awhile, but after awhile of running around she found a relatively safe spot. Even though that meant she had missed two of her next classes. Right now, however, she didn't care.

She just needed to calm down from everything that had happened and wondered what she should do next.

No doubt that her reappearance in the city would get around. If it's one thing she knew about schools, is rumours and gossip spread faster than a wild fire. Could she still go on hiding under her hood? Could she still try and act like a shadow?

She shook her head roughly. That was out of the question.

She couldn't hide forever, no matter how much she wanted to. Could her hood continue to protect her? Sakura grumbled and rubbed her head. If only she was normal looking, if only she were born with beauty could she possibly fit in.

Heck, she was even jealous of her bullies. They were all beautiful and pretty and popular. All so confident, everything she could ever dream of being. But that was out of her reach.

She had told herself many times to stop fantasizing about silly things and deluding herself into thinking maybe one day she could be like that. To be like the popular kids, to shine in the light.

Sakura has always felt like some sort of beast that had clawed itself out of the ugliest of swamps.

Sakura grumbled and hissed to herself before falling back and kicked her feet furiously.

"Stop it…" she whispered. She should stop thinking like that, it was only going to make her mood worse that she already was. She didn't need to add to it.

With a sigh, Sakura looked up at the clear blue sky. She actually liked it up there, on top of the roof of the school. It was quiet and there was no one around. Well, not anyone so far. She was glad. Though her mind had begun to over think, it was peaceful.

Nonetheless, she tried to refocus herself onto other pressing matters. Such has how to avoid Ino. She didn't want any more questions asked or the 'pleasure' of her company again any time soon.

She could always hide in the bathroom again…

Suddenly, a shadow loomed over head and Sakura strained to see what it was. She squinted to see.

"So…" her eyes widened "You're who everyone is talking about."

_Sasuke._

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**So sorry if there's any errors! **

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	7. Annoyance

**A big thank you to;**

_**Meriamdz**_

_**Sasukerr14**_

_**Tikai **_

_**Ciara**_

_**FEARFLUFFY **_

_**AmyKpd **_

_**Aimii0**_

_**Tuliharja **_

_**And Trueblue51 **_

**For reviewing me!**

**You guys are so awesome! I never expected to have so many reviews on my story! I never knew I could have so much confidence and enthusiasm to write!:3 Aaaaahh thank you, thank you, thank you!**

**Another big thank you to the lovely people who have placed me on their favourite list and put me on alert!:3 **

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**~Annoyance~**

* * *

Sakura felt heat burn her skin.

A scarlet blush crept up her neck and formed across her cheeks. She never expected this. She didn't know what to make of the odd feeling. Her stomach was doing flips, like a swarm of butterflies were on a rampage in the pit of her stomach. Her skin tingled and she shivered.

She couldn't believe it, even if she had seen it with her own eyes. He was the last person she expected to see.

_Sasuke Uchiha_.

Sakura's already heated blush deepened into a darker shade. The thought of his name sent waves of shivers over her. Her stomach fluttered harder and she swore it was going to make her sick.

It was a somewhat familiar feeling. But this time around, it felt so strong. She remembered having small butterflies in her stomach when she was little, but now- it was so overwhelming she could have just fainted on the spot.

Sakura held in the urge to squeal. What was wrong with her? No one has ever made her feel like this. She didn't like the alien feeling. She wanted it to go away and never come back. She couldn't deal with it, it would only add to her problems. And she definitely _did not_ want this.

Sakura rolled around on her bed, kicking angrily as she tried to rid all the thoughts of the raven haired boy.

A memory began to creep up to her, and if possible, her blush deepened even more to the point she looked like a ripe tomato. Sakura kicked and squirmed across her bed, letting out a loud groan.

When she met Sasuke on the roof, it hadn't lasted more than 5 seconds. When she realised it was him, she basically scampered off at top speed like a frightened little mouse. Now he probably thought she was even more of a freak…

"Ugh…" Sakura moaned, moving over and laid on her side, staring out the window.

She hadn't been to school since Tuesday, and right now it was Saturday morning. The school had of course informed her parents and Sakura got a lovely phone call with an angry mother. It hadn't lasted long, Sakura had lied and said she was ill and taking a few days off. But that was it really. Her mother had said for her to get plenty of rest and get back to school as soon as she's better.

Though in Sakura's case, she didn't know if she'd be able to face going back to school so soon, especially after certain events.

She sighed and sat up, leaning over to the bedside table and pulled out the packet of cigarettes she'd stolen from her mother last week.

Sakura's nose wrinkled in annoyance. There was only one left and she would definitely be needing more. She wasn't addicted or anything, but right now it was a stressful time for her and it helped her somewhat to take her mind of things. Sakura could tell it was becoming an oral fixation and as soon as things calmed down she promised to herself she wouldn't smoke anymore.

Or she hoped.

Sakura popped the last cigarette into her mouth and sighed again. She would have to leave the safety of her house soon to buy more, and of course, more groceries. There wasn't any left in the house and what was left had gone off and was beginning to turn mouldy and smelly.

Today wasn't a good day for her.

* * *

Sakura grimaced as she walked through the town shopping centre. She kept her head down low and averted herself from walking into anyone. She wasn't having a good time, she never had when she went shopping.

Her mother would take her shopping a lot when she was younger, Sakura hated every second of it. It was just torture and a bother to her, plus her feet would hurt at the end of the day. It got worse when she was older.

When Sakura had reached her teen years, her mother decided it would be fun to have 'mother and daughter' days. This consisted upon a day out shopping for all kind of things, go for a meal and then go to the cinema. It really was agony.

Sakura tried her best to keep up her happy façade which luckily her mother fell for. But in truth, when they went shopping for clothes it made her more self conscious than she already was.

She would look at all the nice accessories and pretty dresses and clothes and it always reminded her that she could never look beautiful in them. No matter how much she wanted to buy them, something always stopped her.

She would usually spot people her age wearing nice cute clothes, and if Sakura tried to wear them she felt she'd never look cute like the other girls.

The only thing she did buy, much to her mothers dismay, was baggy clothing to hide her body and drown everything. She never bought pretty things, always thinking she didn't deserve them.

It would get worse when they went for a meal, the day out of shopping continued to remind her how ugly she felt. And seeing all the other skinny people didn't help anything, it made her pick at her food and look down at herself in disgust.

The cinema did take her mind of things, though it was only for a short time.

Sakura grumbled. She couldn't wait to go back home and get back into bed. She just wanted to be alone. Like she always was. But first thing's first. She needed to pick up some bread and butter. She'd gotten everything else she needed so it wouldn't take long.

She had already picked up four packets of cigarettes, fearing she didn't know how many she would need or how long it would last. She was glad the age to buy cigarettes was 16, and luckily she had brought her I.D just in case. But that wasn't really needed.

She had bought a little to last her at least another week. Though she felt she probably wouldn't be using that much of it. Sakura bought basic things to eat such as meat, vegetables, fruit, bottled water and such.

She hoped next week she'd at least use more than she had this week.

Sakura continued to walk with her head down, though she was strongly aware of the stares she was getting. It irritated her to no end. Is that all people did these days?

But it was most likely due to the fact Sakura wasn't wearing her hood today since it was in the wash and she couldn't find anything else beside a beanie hat. But the hat itself wasn't enough to hide her hair completely as her hair was quite long.

She glared at the tile floor and watched her feet.

For one day, just one day, could people not stare at her? Or was that too much to ask?

She felt like some freak put on display for the whole world to see. Like she was there solely for the purpose of entertaining and amusing people.

Sakura made her way to a small shop near the middle of the shopping centre and shuffled inside. If it was one thing she glad she knew, was how she remembered her way around Konoha. Also thanks to her mother for taking her shopping so much. But she'd never went out by herself, only with her mother. But she knew the places to go for grocery shopping.

"Sakura!" squealed a voice.

Sakura's scowl deepened and she pretended not to hear as she moved toward one of the isles. She had hoped she wouldn't run into anyone. Well, mostly _her_. Ino Yamanaka. Of all the people to run into, Sakura didn't want it to be her.

"Hey, Sakura, didn't you hear me calling?" a hand placed itself on her shoulder and she instantaneously tensed. She really didn't like people touching her. Even her mother and father.

A head of blond flashed in her peripheral vision. The hand released itself and the face of Ino popped into her line vision. Sakura jerked back and turned to Ino, brows frowning. What did she even want?

Ino grinned. "Fancy seeing you here," she said cheerily "Out shopping, I see." Ino pointed to the plastic bags Sakura was holding. But Sakura never looked down, she didn't take her eyes off Ino. "A coincident, no? I'm here shopping too." she flashed another grin and turned to where Sakura was looking.

Sakura scowled some more as Ino reached out and grabbed one loaf of bread. "Are you here by yourself?" asked Ino as she looked over the item, squeezing it gently as if to check how soft it was.

Sakura never replied. How could she? Ino is a bully. Bullies are bad people. And of course, because she didn't _know_ what to say, though the question was placed in front of her, she didn't know how to answer.

Ino sighed after a long moment and turned back to Sakura. "Still not speaking to me?" she raised a blond brow, ocean blue eyes dancing with amusement. "Fine, fine. How about you join me for lunch? A bunch of my friends are going to the new café, want to join?"

Still no reply.

"Okay then, I'll meet you outside!" and with that, Ino threw the bread back down and skipped out of the shop.

After a few moments of standing there in silence, Sakura let out her breath that she hadn't realised she was holding in. She shook her head. She really couldn't be dealing with this. Sakura _really_ wanted a cigarette right now.

Quickly, Sakura grabbed a random loaf of bread and scurried at top speed to find the butter which wasn't that far away before heading over to the check out.

* * *

Sakura ran a hand through her wet hair. A sigh escaping through her lips and she pressed her back against the cool door of her house.

It was a lucky escape, she was sure she was a going to get caught for sure and she thanked her lucky stars that she wasn't.

Ino, as expected, had waited for her at the entrance of the shop. But when she had got distracted with her phone, Sakura took that opportunity and ran for it like a bat out of hell. She had bumped into a few innocent passer-by's and because of that, Ino noticed her running away.

Sakura didn't expect Ino to chase after her, it almost felt like a game of cat and mouse. But nonetheless, she had escaped, just.

It was unfortunate that it had begun to rain heavily as she ran back to her house, plastic bags in hand. She got a few odd looks for that but she successfully managed to ignore it. She wasn't entirely soaked to the bone, thankfully. Her hair had got the worst of it. It didn't bother her that much though.

Sakura walked toward the kitchen and placed the bags on the counter. After that, she hastily pulled out one of the packets of cigarettes she'd bought earlier and stepped toward the back entrance of the door in the kitchen.

She sighed again as she pulled out a cigarette and placed it firmly between her soft lips.

Now she had to think about what she should do about school next week. Skipping it would cause a raise in suspicion from not just the school itself but also her parents. Sakura had barely ever had a sick day in her life and when she was it never lasted longer than a day or two.

It would be a bad idea to skip again. As much as Sakura inwardly begged herself. She didn't want to deal with Ino or see Sasuke.

A blush crept across her face at the thought of Sasuke and she mentally kicked herself for thinking about him.

She shook her head angrily and lit up her cigarette, inhaling deeply and the taste of the nicotine and smoke oddly soothed her and gave her head a light buzz.

* * *

The next day, Sakura had awoken to the sound of something hammering against her front door. She had shot up from her bed and looked around, groggy from sleep.

She blinked tiredly as she eyed the alarm clock next to her.

_9:52am._

She sniffed and rubbed her itchy nose before fiercely rubbing her eyes. She was about to lay back down but there was another abrupt knocking at her door.

Sakura narrowed her eyes and looked toward her bedroom door. Who could be knocking at her door? Actually, _why would_ someone knock at her door?

She chewed her lip, unsure of what to do but another, louder knock caused her to twitch and jump. Did she have another choice?

Sakura quietly got out of bed, exited her room and made her way toward the stairs before descending down them.

Someone from behind the door slammed on it harshly, Sakura cringed and headed toward it. She really wanted nothing more than to run back up to bed and sleep for a few more hours. But someone was making that impossible for her.

Hesitantly, Sakura reached for the door handle and unlocked the door slowly before opening.

"Yes-"

"-Ah, thanks. Took you long enough, you know? I've been knocking for _ages_! Hmm, have you been sleeping? That doesn't matter now, thanks for letting me in by the way."

Sakura blinked, confused as the person entered her house. _without permission_.

But no, it wasn't just anyone. Though she would have preferred it if it was. In truth it was the person she least expected to see at her door or rudely barging into her house.

It was the girl that was becoming the bane of her existence.

Ino Yamanaka.

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**So sorry for any errors! **

**Also, I would like to confidently say, Sasuke will indeed be in the next chapter:3 **

**Thank you so, so, so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed!**

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	8. Apology?

**Thank you to the lovely people who reviewed me!:3**

_**Trueblue51**_

_**AmyKpd**_

_**Sasukerr14**_

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_**Meriamdz - **_**she is indeed, but she still portrays herself as overweight. **

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_**Tikai -**_** You'll have to wait and see! C:**

_**UchihaSarah926 - **_**to your question, yes it will be revealed, but not all in the one:3 **

* * *

**~Apology?~**

* * *

Sakura was seething.

She grit her teeth, watching Ino in the kitchen like _she_ owned the place. Sakura was beyond angry, mostly because she had not long woken up and was very grumpy. She clenched her fists as Ino darted around the kitchen, picking things out of cupboards before settling in and making herself and Sakura, surprisingly, a coffee.

"How many sugars?" Ino chimed, beaming happily at Sakura.

Sakura's eye twitched, but she didn't reply. Fearing if she did talk, she wouldn't be able to stop herself from the verbal onslaught she wished to release.

"Hmm, three? Yeah, I take three too." Ino grinned merrily and worked her way around. "Nice house, by the way." she added in.

Sakura grumbled quietly, shuffling to one of the counters and pulled a packet of cigarettes out of one of the drawers. She didn't care if Ino saw her smoke at that point, she just needed something, _anything_ to calm herself down. She wouldn't stoop as low as what Ino has in the past, she wasn't scum.

Stomping over to the door in the kitchen that lead to the back garden, Sakura angrily ripped it open and stepped out, slamming the door behind her.

She shivered at the sudden temperature change but nonetheless, she quite enjoyed it. It was a bright and sunny day today, and very warm. She turned and trudged over to the bench under the porch. Which wasn't even two feet away.

Sitting down, she let out a much needed sigh and gazed over the garden tiredly. It was a large garden and unlike the front of the house, the back had two cherry blossom trees that was surrounded by vast arrays of different types of flowers. The grass even seemed greener. But the only thing that seemed to bother her was how the fence to the house next door wasn't very big, she could basically see inside both their garden and house.

Sakura turned away and popped the cigarette in her mouth and quickly lit it up.

She almost choked on inhaling when she heard the backdoor slam, revealing a happy Ino. Sakura glared up at her, her bad mood worsening. She'd come out for privacy, since apparently she wouldn't get that in the comfort of her own home.

Ino placed a hot cup of coffee on the small, circular wooden table in front of them as she sipped at her own cup. She gave a low hum as she drank carefully, making sure not to burn her tongue.

"I never knew you smoked," she giggled, snatching the packet of cigarettes off Sakura's lap and took one out, popping it in her mouth before pulling out her own light blue lighter and lit it up. "Thank you!" she giggled again.

Sakura blinked for a few seconds before frowning at her lap. Those were _her_ cigarettes, _not_ Ino's.

A moment of silence brushed over them, until unfortunately Ino began to speak again. "So I was thinking you should sit with me at school from now on." she began, earning a choking noise from Sakura when she had picked up her cup of coffee and took a drink. Sakura turned around to her, suspicion flickering across her green eyes. Ino didn't notice as she stared up at one of the cherry blossom trees.

"Why?" Sakura managed to splutter out after a moment, her tongue hurt from the hot coffee. She didn't even realise she'd spoke until Ino turned to grin at her. It made Sakura nervous, even more uncomfortable that she already was.

Ino shrugged. "I want you to." she stated.

"No." Sakura muttered, taking a long drag of her cigarette. "Why are you even here? Isn't it illegal to enter someone's house without permission?" she bit harshly, surprising herself that she even spoke to the evil woman.

Ino shrugged again, a happy smile across her face. "Why?" she chuckled, popping out her lower lip. "I only want to spend the day with you, is that too much to ask? Besides, you've not told me to go away yet."

"Go away."

"Nope." Ino said, quite smugly as she popped the 'p'.

Sakura grumbled, turning to now glare at the cherry blossom tree. That woman was nothing more than a nuisance. She felt Ino get comfortable on the bench, sipping her coffee and puffing away at her smoke.

* * *

Sakura's face remained a bright red, which she tried to cover up with the veil of her hair. How did she get herself into this situation? Come to think about it, how did it even happen? One minute Ino was chatting merrily to her and the next, the next thing there's _this_?

She fought hard not to pass out with embarrassment, trying desperately to control her thunderous heartbeat, but it didn't seem to calm down.

She'd realised that half the reason why she was blushing so much was because she was still in her pyjamas and that her hair was wild from sleep. She couldn't even strike up the nerve to get up and get changed, or even shoo the people.

What was wrong with her?

She should know better than to let people near her, or let them sit with her in her back garden. Ino she could barely tolerate, but _this_? She didn't know what to make of it.

It turned out that her neighbours were none other than the Uchiha's, much to Sakura's surprise, she never even knew or thought to check.

So when two Uchiha's suddenly appeared at the fence of her garden, holding up a basket of goodies, she could only stare at them dumbly, scrutinising to see who exactly it was. But when Ino had jumped up and charged for the fence, glomming onto the shorter one, she thought nothing else than to retreat inside and lock the door.

That didn't work, since Ino raced back over to her, lacing her arm in hers and forced her to sit back down as she waved at the other two to come join.

Sakura wasn't pleased at all. She was ready to slap the girl upside the head and kick her out of her garden. Though, if only she had that sort of confidence to do that.

Ino had squealed, saying how lucky Sakura was to live next-door to the Uchiha's. Sakura didn't feel lucky though, if anything, it lowered her mood to the point she had to smoke three more cigarettes to calm her nerves before the two Uchiha's decided to join.

But when she discovered who it was, it wracked her nerves even more. Her face instantaneously heated up and she had to look away form them to make sure they hadn't seen her red face.

She didn't recognise the taller one, but she eventually was learned and introduced that it was indeed Itachi Uchiha, the older brother of Sasuke Uchiha and they had both joined Ino and Sakura to sit in her garden.

Sakura could barely even believe it, Sasuke Uchiha was sitting in her garden. _With_ her… and of course Ino and his older brother.

They had brought over a welcome basket for Sakura, which consisted upon of random pieces of fruit, homemade cookies and other goodies. She never expected it. She barely even managed to squeak out a thank you. It only caused her skin to turn a more threatening red colour.

What had happened next seemed like a blur to her, she vaguely remembered Ino dragging her back into the house to get cool drinks and to make a plate of sandwiches. Other than that, her mind was blank.

She didn't know where the other Uchiha's had gotten the chairs to sit at the table with, she was sure they weren't hers though. What she really wondered was how they all managed to get themselves involved into a game of 'go fish'.

"Don't cheat Ino, hand it over." calmly spoke Itachi after half an hour into the game, on their second round of the game. He lazily lifted his head to look up at her, a hand reaching out.

Ino grumbled, shooting a glare at the older Uchiha and ripped the queen of hearts from her hands and threw it at him. He quickly caught it before it could hit the ground or himself for that matter, before pulling out his own queens and placed them onto the table. He now held three cards in his hand. His last three cards.

Sakura eyed them all carefully, trying to ignore the fact she was still in her pyjamas and pushed down her overheated blush. That was a lot of effort, though she discovered all she needed to do to make it easier was to stop glancing at Sasuke. Which proved harder that she originally thought.

"So, Sakura…" said Itachi after a pregnant pause, eyeing his cards carefully. "What brings you back to Konoha? Are your parents in town?"

Sakura's head snapped up, any traces of her red face, gone. In replacement, her face glazed over in confusion as she raised a pink brow. Had Itachi heard of her before? Most likely. Who could forget ugly fat little Sakura Haruno? As for her parents, who hasn't heard of them?

She had been thinking for awhile now, why hadn't she freaked out yet? Or retreated into her home for that matter? But it all came back down to the fact she was still cranky and moody since Ino's appearance this morning, she didn't exactly get a lot of sleep last night. But it didn't stop her from blushing like crazy when she seen Sasuke.

"No." she muttered, glancing behind Itachi, making sure not to make direct eye contact. She didn't like looking people in the eye, it made her uncomfortable. "They're not in town." Sakura glanced back down at her handful of cards. "I'm here because my parents want me here."

Sakura felt the three sets of eyes on her, she tried not to pay attention to them.

"So, you're here alone then?" lazily asked Sasuke.

Sakura tensed. He was talking _to_ her, not _at_ her like before on the roof. She tried to relax herself, but her attempt was fruitless. She'd never been around people like this, playing cards. She'd be lying to herself if she said she wasn't enjoying it. Even if it was with Ino. Sakura managed to bob her head once, her throat thickening.

"Hn." he grunted, as if acknowledging her reply.

Sakura bit down on her lip, forcing the heat in her face back.

"Pft… you need to teach me how you get her to talk, Itachi." grumbled Ino, hunching her shoulders.

Itachi raised his eyes to her, arching a brow before letting out a light chuckle. "Oh? And how is that?"

Sakura turned to give Ino a nasty look, she still wasn't pleased by her being here. If it wasn't for her she could have still been in bed sleeping the day away. Sakura really did have much needed rest to catch up on.

"Whenever I've tried talking to her, she just ignores me." Ino scrunched her face up unhappily, before letting out a long sigh.

"Have you thought to why she's ignoring you?"

Ino looked up at him, before lowering her head and shrugging lightly.

* * *

Sakura could finally breathe. The Uchiha's had finally left, though it had taken up much of the day and the sun had just started to go down, nonetheless, they did leave.

She hastily ripped out another cigarette, something she'd been wanting to do for most of the day but held it in. she didn't know if the Uchiha's smoked or if they liked people smoking near them.

Sakura popped the cigarette into her mouth and shakily lit it up. She couldn't believe she managed it. She managed the whole day without freaking out in front of any of them. She mentally gave herself a pat on the back.

"Uhm, Sakura?"

Sakura glared up at the owner of the voice. Ino nervously stood at the entrance to the kitchen, wandering ocean blue eyes flickering this way and that way as she rubbed her arm awkwardly.

"I'm leaving now…"

_Finally_.

Sakura stared at her for a few more moments, eyes narrowing further as she saw an emotion flicker through her eyes. Ino's cheeks tinted a red hue, narrowing her own blond brows before taking in a long ragged breath before released it heavily.

"I'm sorry okay!" she chortled, before scampering off through the house until Sakura heard the slam of the front door.

She blinked, shocked and cocked her head to the side.

Was that an apology?

* * *

**I apologise if there's any spelling errors!**

**I hope you enjoyed reading and thank you so much for the lovely people who have reviewed, put me on their favourite list and alert!:3**

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	9. New People

**A big thank you to you lovely reviewers! **

_**Aimii0 -**_** thank you so much!:D **

_**TheBloodyLoveOfSakuraHaruno -**_** I really appreciate your review, it's a great help and I'm trying by best to get better. Though at the moment I'm trying to find my rhythm, I'm getting there slowly and I apologise if it's a little short. I'm working on that:3 but thank you so much!**

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_**Trueblue51 **_**- Yeah, Sakura's parents are currently not with her:3 If you read back to chapter two you'll see why:3**

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_**Littlebirdd - **_**I was waiting for someone to mention that! Haha, it's going to be revealed in time why they act like this now:3 **

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**Again, thank you so much! It was an amazing feeling waking up to so many reviews! Ah! Thank you!:3**

* * *

**~New People~**

* * *

To Sakura's utter dismay, Monday came far too soon.

She had sluggishly dragged herself to school that morning, not bothering to call for a taxi, though now she wished she had. It was too sunny and hot for her. She started sweating just three steps out her door.

Sakura went with her better judgment and kept her hooded jumper on, hoping and praying that she would go inconspicuous. There is bound to be other people that wear hoods, right? Sakura nodded with that thought. She couldn't be the only one.

Sakura got a little paranoid that she'd be walking around with sweat stains under her arms because of the intense heat that day, so she tried not to glue her arms to her side and instead raised her arms out a little with her elbows out. It didn't look exactly normal to walk with arms out like that, but she tried to make it look as natural as possible.

Sakura had passed her old school on the way to high school. A cold chill ran through her as a flood of bitter memories passed through her. At least _that_ stage of her life was over. Though she wasn't out of the woods yet, she still had her last year ahead of her and then college.

She had glanced through the gates, looking up at the old grey building with hate. This wasn't a good place for her, she didn't need reminded.

She watched as a few children ran around the school grounds, playing merrily with one another. Her eyes quickly drifted off to the large green tree that stood firmly next to the school with a swing attached.

Sakura cringed. She remembered sitting there as a child with no one to play with.

Shaking her head and turned away from the gate and continued on her way.

Upon entering the school grounds, Sakura became a little uncomfortable with the fact that two guys were throwing cans of coke at each other, full tins that caused a small pool at the foot of the concrete steps leading to the inside of the school.

Sakura grimaced as she quickened her pace and kept her head down low. She tried to ignore the fact that they weren't wearing tops and secretly hid her blush. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she neared the steps.

To her happiness, the boys stopped to let her past, eyeing her up carefully. She chewed her lip as she passed them and hopped up the steps quickly.

Her happiness was short-lived when she noticed a familiar head of blond. Sakura held in her groan as the girl smiled cheerfully at her, offering a small wave while she basically sprinted in her direction.

"Sakura!" she chirped.

Sakura glowered at the girl, stopping at the top of the stairs.

_Ino_.

Unfortunately for her, Ino tried to skid to a halt when an empty, crushed can of coke found its way under her foot, causing her to tumble and wobble and in the process accidentally giving Sakura a gentle push as she got to her.

Sakura tried to steady herself but to her dissatisfaction, she felt her body move unwillingly back. Her orbs widened and she let out a loud gasp as she came tumbling back down the stairs, smack landing in the pool of discarded coke.

* * *

Sakura grumbled to herself, rubbing her scrapped hands under the warm running water, ignoring the dull throb and ache it gave her. She was just far too annoyed.

That was two days now. Two days had Ino ruined and single handily destroyed.

She grit her teeth, refusing to look up at the mirror in the girls bathroom. It was truly a bad start to the day, and it seems she's been having a lot of bad days recently, more so than before.

Turning off the tap, she straightened her back, rubbing her wet hands on her jeans.

"I'm so sorry about your jacket, Sakura."

Sakura lazily looked from the corner of her eyes, looking down at Ino as she bowed guiltily. It was all her fault. It was her fault the school laughed at her for falling, her fault her jacket was ruined, _her fault she now couldn't keep her hood up_.

A days plan, _ruined_.

Sakura's nose flared at the blond. She didn't understand why she barely feared Ino anymore, but it was more so replaced by anger at what she had done to her when she was younger, and what had just happened not 20 minutes ago. Ten years would do that person, right?

She shook her head and turned to rip her coke soaked jacket off the counter near the sink before harshly shoving it inside her jacket. Now what was she going to do? She couldn't exactly hide. If only she had brought a spare jacket just in case.

There was without a doubt people would stare at her more, who wouldn't? Who has ever heard of a natural pink head? She couldn't go home, she knew that. Her only option was to power through it.

She scowled, looking down at her feet.

"Come on, cheer up will ya? Now you can show everyone your pretty pink hair!" Sakura's head snapped up, staring dumbly at the grinning blond. Did she find pleasure in Sakura's misfortune? Because she didn't find it funny at all.

"Whatever…" she grunted, spinning around to walk out of the girls bathroom.

* * *

First period had gone extremely slow and it didn't help that Ino found it her responsibility to sit next to Sakura. It made it worse knowing two other of Ino's friends had decided to join them.

Sakura tried to keep her head down and focus on her work, or stare out the window, she didn't exactly want to be involved of their conversations but it always seemed to go back to her and a new round of questions would be set upon her ever five minutes.

Ino was grinning from eat to ear, occasionally intertwining her arm with Sakura's and would giggle. Sakura would frown every time she did it, trying to pry her off.

Tenten, the girl that had stopped her in P.E last week was also a friend of Ino's and had succumb to asking Sakura questions also. It unnerved Sakura how direct she was, straight to the point. She could be speaking to Ino one second, and the next she'd turn to Sakura ask a direct question.

It wasn't as often as Ino, but still, she didn't like the two prying into her personal life. Ino asked more than Tenten, and her questions were mainly based around her love life- which was nonexistent and she didn't intend on changing that any time soon, she'd ask who her favourite model was, favourite movie star, colour, what kind of underwear is sexier- frilly or patterned.

Sakura really didn't know how to answer any of her questions, she'd look at her occasionally and sometimes her emotion would flicker from shocked, stunned, embarrassed to a 'what the hell' expression.

Tenten held more sensible questions, such being; what kind of sports do you like? Do you play any sports? What position do you think you'd be if you played football? Do you prefer football or hockey? Stuff like that.

Sakura was half shocked that Tenten even spoke to her. She'd never met her before and didn't recognise her from when she was younger. She was almost durable, but she didn't like how the two girls had suddenly popped up and started speaking to her out of nowhere.

She wasn't used to it, or the close proximity of how Ino chose to lean against her or touch her gently sometimes.

But nonetheless she tried her hardest to answer Tenten's questions, even if they did come out as shy mumbles, Tenten heard her as clear as a bell and she was glad she didn't have to repeat herself or raise her voice.

"Stop annoying her Ino," spoke Shikamaru idly out of the blue, popping his head back from the desk in front of Ino and Sakura. He looked tiredly at Ino before rolling his eyes. "You're bothering us both with your constant chatter."

Sakura's thoughts on Shikamaru from the first day had been correct, though she couldn't see him directly, she was correct in her thoughts. Shikamaru had attended the same school as both Ino and Sakura when they were children, though he hadn't changed much but had matured. He didn't change his hairstyle or the way he dressed ether.

Sakura remembered him always wearing the same old green top and a plain pair of blue jeans. She guessed it hadn't changed much, he still wore a green top and blue jeans.

A part of her was thankful he didn't stop and stare at her, though when he did turn around to say something, which hadn't happened often, before he turned back around she felt his eyes linger on her hair.

"Shut up," hissed Ino, glaring at Shikamaru. "Who asked for your opinion?"

Shikamaru's lip tugged up at the side, turning into a small smirk. "It's not an opinion, it's fact."

"Shikamaru you-"

"-Yamanaka!" Ino turned in the direction of the voice, revealing an irritated Iruka. His eye twitched before he spoke. "Had you got something to share with the rest of the class?"

Ino gulped, nervously looking around the class. Turns out people are staring at her now, looking at her and sniggering. Iruka glared at her expectantly, leaning against a table and placing the textbook he had in his hands, onto his lap.

Ino shrunk back in her seat, shyly looking up through her thickly coated black eyelashes. "No, sir…"

"Good."

Iruka turned away, picking up the textbook and began reading from it again, taking off from where he last was reading. Sakura held in her own smirk. It served her right for not shutting up _and_ for bothering Sakura.

Sakura flicked her hair in front of her, creating a veil and shielded her face. It bothered her a great deal with her ruined jumper, and she was correct in finding out she would indeed be stared at. She found that out when she had walked to class, followed by a happy Ino.

There had been the few whispers amongst the students, moving out their way to let Sakura past. She tried to not let it bother her, she spent the majority of her life trying to block out people. At her last school people had at one point called her a fake, claiming her hair was dyed.

She didn't minded that much about that, at least they weren't exactly making fun of her appearance. Though the hair thing had died down after a few weeks, it did eventually turn to verbal abuse, picking on her for her outward appearance.

Sakura didn't have a doubt in mind it would repeat itself all over again here. She just hoped she was ready for it.

She was abruptly brought out of her train of thought when something pinged off her nose and landed on the papers scattered in front of her. Blinking, she looked down to reveal a folded piece of paper.

She looked up at Tenten, who gave a light smile and wave before turning around, continuing on her own work.

Sakura narrowed her brow, picking the piece of paper and begun to unfold it.

'_Join us for lunch on the roof today? I want to learn a little more about you _

_- Tenten (:'_

Her frown deepened.

She wanted to know more about Sakura?

This is a first.

* * *

The time span between first period and lunch time flew by faster than Sakura could blink.

She hadn't realised when people began to file neatly out of the class until the teacher had cleared their throat, trying to get her attention.

Sakura groaned to herself.

She had been silently dreading lunch time. But she was off to a head start, Ino or Tenten weren't in her fourth period class so she might just be able to hide if she times things right. She could only hope.

Sakura quickly gathered her things, preparing to make a dash for the bathroom.

* * *

Sakura twitched irritably.

This wasn't what she had originally in mind to happen.

Before Sakura even had one foot out the door, Ino had charged her from the other side of the corridor. She had even pushed people out the way to get to Sakura, earning filthy looks in the process.

Sakura didn't know what to make of it, the fact that she happily and enthusiastically pushed people out the way, or how she found it delightful seeing Sakura.

Sakura didn't even get her say in when Ino had got to her, snagged her arm and dragged her to the roof of the school.

And now she sat, on the furthest corner on the rooftop, leaning against the railing and looking idly down at the other students. She tried extremely hard to drown out the annoying voices of the other people who had joined them on the roof. Sakura wasn't the least bit comfortable.

She had learned that one of the boys from earlier this morning was called Kiba. One of the boys that had been throwing the coke cans. She vaguely remembered the boy from when she was younger, but she refused to delve deeper into it, fearing it might bright up a memory.

She just chose to ignore him. Sakura was annoyed at him though, it was partly his fault she couldn't wear her hood.

Sakura had also been introduced to three other people.

Choji, Shino and Neji. Choji she remembered clearly, he was always the one eating in class when she was younger. She remembered Shino clearly, remembering the time when he had brought a box of ants to school with him which she silently thanked for when they escaped, meaning she and the rest of the school got to leave school early while the school called the exterminator.

Shino wasn't too pleased about that. As far as she could remember, Shino was always quiet and when that incident happened, she had no idea he could shout so loud.

But Sakura didn't remember Neji. So brushed it back and thought nothing about it.

She was also introduced to another girl named Hinata whom she found felt strangely relaxed around. Sakura also, sort of remembered her from her past, but not so much as Ino. Hinata resembled Neji in some ways with the pale eyes, but other than that it was nothing.

When she was introduced to Neji not so long ago, he remained impassive and calm, offering a small nod toward her. Where as Hinata had smiled warmly at her and said a small hello. She was a little shocked at the length of Neji's hair, but just managed to cover it up.

Sakura was pleased when she was introduced to them, that they hadn't spared her a second glance. Though a part of her thought that maybe Choji, Hinata and Shino didn't remember her, she wasn't that bothered by it. She actually preferred it like that actually.

The four boys, including Shikamaru had sat at the other side of the roof and chatted quietly amongst themselves, huddled into a circle shape.

"This always happens," said Tenten, her chocolate brown eyes flickering to Sakura as she turned around to look. She shifted into a better sitting position, crossing her legs comfortably. "Boys over there, girls over here. It's really irritating, why cant us girls join in?"

Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She'd quickly caught on that Tenten hated the typical male female stereotype. She didn't understand why it bothered her so much.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders, quickly glancing over at the four boys as they chatted away quietly. She was quite happy with the 'seating arrangements'. if she was around the boys, she'd probably end up running away.

After all, she could _just_ handle sitting next to the three other girls. Sakura was already pushing herself as it was, suppressing her panic was hard. But it didn't stop her erratic heartbeat.

She made sure to sit the farthest away, though it wasn't that far. Ino made sure to sit next to her, followed by Tenten and Hinata.

"Pfft, all guys talk about is sports and who sweats the most." laughed Ino loudly, as if making sure the guys heard her. Though none of them turned to look at her. Maybe this happened often amongst them?

Sakura grimaced, she was trying to ignore the heat. And Ino just so kindly reminded her how hot it really was.

"I don't mind sitting here. I quite like it." came the small voice of Hinata as she munched away at a bagel.

Tenten rolled her eyes and huffed, leaning back against the railing and crossed her arms moodily. "Yeah, but they talk to us just fine out of school. What makes this so different?" she grumbled, looking up at the clear sky.

Ino shrugged, pulling her knees up to her chest. "Don't ask me." she sighed.

There was a moment of pause, before Tenten leaned forward to look at Sakura. She frowned thoughtfully before opening her mouth to speak. "Sakura?"

Sakura turned around to look at her blankly.

Tenten pursed her lips before continuing. "Is, uhm, well- is that your natural hair colour?"

Sakura blinked, unsure. Ino gasped beside her, giving Tenten a sharp jab in the ribs with her elbow. "You cant just ask a person that, Tenten!" she squealed, earning a glare from Tenten.

"It was just a question-"

"Yes…" Sakura mumbled, looking down to fiddle with her hands. A blush crept up on her. Was there something wrong with it? She mentally kicked herself. Of course there was something wrong with it, it was pink for goodness sake!

"Oh…" said Tenten "Well it's nice."

Sakura looked back up, eyes wide and her blush deepened. Was that a compliment?

Tenten laughed at her expression, grinning widely. "You remind me so much of Hinata when I first met her." she said, earning a small chuckle from Hinata.

Sakura was about to say something, but something else- or _someone_ else interrupted her. She jumped in fright when the door that lead to the roof was abruptly slammed open.

"Choji! Did you eat my ramen!?"

Sakura's eyes bugged, jaw falling slack in horror at what she saw.

A familiar blond head of hair. Whisker like birthmarks on their cheeks. Vibrant baby blue eyes. Eye blinding orange attire.

_Naruto Uzumaki_.

* * *

**I'm so sorry if there's any spelling errors! **

**Also, if you're wondering where Sasuke is, he's in the next chapter!:3**

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	10. Devious Plan

**A big huge thank you to you awesome reviewers!**

_**Ciara **_

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_**Meriamdz - **_**Wow! I'm so glad you're enjoying it!:3 Thank you!:D **

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'_**Guest' - **_**Since you asked so nicely, I will indeed put the Akatsuki in:3**

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_**TsubasaTenshi-sama **_**- Gonna have to wait and find out!:3**

* * *

**~Devious Plan~**

* * *

Sakura gulped, she had no clue what to do. But whatever _he_ was doing was freaking her out.

She looked away down at the school grounds from the roof for a brief moment, her hands becoming clammy and sweaty. But when she turned back, she could have sworn the blond head, named Naruto, had taken a large leap toward her.

Sakura swallowed once again, looking away from his long stare. She heard a stifle of a laugh coming from next to her, though she was unsure to whom it came from. Biting down on her lower lip, she glanced back around.

She let out a squeak, backing up tightly against the corner of the railing, drawing her knees up tight to her chest. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears and she shook gently.

Naruto, now nose to nose with Sakura, began scrutinizing her. He squinted his baby blue eyes at her, his nose wrinkling slightly. Sakura didn't like the close proximity one bit, and she held in the urge to push him away.

He was in her personal space and she didn't exactly like people getting too close. Especially _this_ close.

His eyes widened a fraction and he was about to say something when Ino, who Sakura reluctantly silently thanked, bopped Naruto over the head, making him fall back onto his buttocks.

"Naruto, you jackass!" barked Ino, balling her fists at Naruto "Back off, will ya?"

Sakura heard Tenten laugh, followed by a small nervous giggle from Hinata. "What the heck was that for?" cried Naruto, rubbing the patch on his head where Ino hit him. "I didn't do anything!"

Sakura let out a small breath of air and shifted further into the corner. Ino was slightly leaned forward, glaring daggers at Naruto who sat at least three feet away. It wasn't as close as before, but she still didn't like him being near her.

The two blonds glared at each other for a short moment, before Naruto turned back to Sakura was a serious face. She frowned. As far as Sakura could remember, Naruto would never get this close to her.

She remembered one time where he had sat next to her in class when she was six. The memory was less that pleasant. She remembered how he had pulled his chair to the farthest end of the best to get away from her. She even remembered how he muttered about 'cooties' and how he didn't like the colour pink.

So Sakura had ticked it off that Naruto didn't like her at all since he mentioned not liking the colour pink, and since her hair was pink it just seemed to click in place.

But for him to get so close, it didn't feel right to her.

Something in her stomach knotted together tightly, twisting and swirling. There was definitely something up, she just couldn't place what it was. First of, there was Ino, her previous bully who now was relentless in trying to get her attention and refusing to leave her alone and on top of that had indeed apologised. Though if it was sincere or not, Sakura didn't know and hadn't accepted it. She refused to.

And now there's Naruto, who in the past refused to get anywhere near her had suddenly touched noses with her. It was just _off_.

Sakura chewed the inside of her cheek. Maybe Naruto doesn't remember her. It's not impossible for a bunch of people to dye their hair pink, maybe it was normal? She shook her head, if it was normal then people wouldn't stare at her hair so much.

"Sakura?"

_Ok. Maybe he does remember_.

Sakura nervously looked up at Naruto through the shield of hair she had created. Her eyes narrowed at the soft expression in Naruto's eyes. _Something is definitely off_. "Are you okay?" Naruto seemed almost nervous as he scratched the back of his head, a faint trace of a smile playing on his lips.

She blinked. No one had really asked her that before, besides her parents of course. It was strange to say the least. Especially coming from him, never had she ever thought of him asking that, or anyone else for that matter.

Sakura turned away, leaning her head against the warm railings.

Reluctantly, she gave a gentle nod.

* * *

How Sakura found herself in this predicament was even more confusing than having Ino turn up at her house. She had actually been asking herself how Ino even found out where she lived. But this, this was even more awkward.

When the final bell had rang for the end of lunch, Naruto had happily walked side by side with Sakura. It had unsettled Sakura, there wasn't any conversation which was strange from what she remembered of Naruto. He always talked, even though it wasn't directly toward her, he could never usually keep his mouth shut.

A part of her was glad Ino wasn't there, but another part of her wished she had been. Simply to distract her from Naruto's presence. However, Hinata was there, but still, it felt uncomfortable.

It didn't help when the people that were heading to their own classes had cast Sakura a long stare.

It got worse when they had arrived at their next class; art. Naruto had towed both Sakura and Hinata to the back of the class before anyone could take up the seats. She flinched when Naruto grabbed her, shoving her down into the seat next to him with Hinata on the other side of him.

Grimacing, she took a long look around the classroom.

It wasn't an overly big room, a little on the small side actually. Random paintings hung from walls, some of which Sakura was quite impressed with. Paint and glue stains covered almost every desk and was even paint stains on the floor.

The room itself was painted colourfully, from reds and blues to different shades of yellow. But for some reason it didn't seem to match and she wondered who could have been the person to paint it. Maybe the room itself was an art piece, though it didn't seem likely, it looked too unorganised.

To the right side of the room there was an array of sinks that were also stained, probably of the years of abuse of paint been poured down it. Next to each sink, there were paint pots, some were half full and others were empty and used as paintbrush holders.

Under the sink there were closed cupboards, she could only guess there was more paint under there.

Sakura grimaced, she really didn't like paint. Especially near her, part of her wondered why she even chose art as one of her subjects. Though she just shrugged it off.

On the left side of the room, next to the window there was a neat row of counters holding different coloured pencils and pens that were next to a variety of different coloured paper and cardboard.

She sighed to herself.

Today was just going to drag on and on.

* * *

Sakura frowned, trying to focus on her work. Her teacher, who was called Kurenai Yuhi, had decided for the class to do expressive art. Sakura wasn't the best at drawing, but she wasn't terrible ether.

The teacher had personally instructed to just take it easy for today seeing as she was still the new kid and she didn't exactly attend Kurenai's class last week. She had told Sakura the only reason they were doing expressive art was to see how far along the other students art abilities were and what would need improving on.

For the most part of the lesson, it was quiet. Sakura enjoyed it. Hinata had brought both Sakura and Naruto different sheets of white paper, unsure of what size they were wanting. But nonetheless, Sakura had thanked Hinata quietly. And in return, she got a gentle smile.

She had drew the first thing that came to mind after a long moment of thinking.

A dead tree with a raven flying over head.

She didn't know why she wanted to draw it, but she did. Her hands just found themselves wandering around the sheet of paper and before she even knew it, she'd drawn the dead tree and raven bird floating above the tree.

Naruto had cast her a few odd glances when he took a peak to see what she'd drawn. He never said anything though, and Sakura was glad. However, Naruto had shown Sakura his drawing. Which was just a bowl of ramen and a very large narutomaki next to it.

Sakura thought he'd be a bit more creative than that. As she remembered, Naruto had a large fixation with ramen and would talk about it a lot to his friend- excluding her of course. He even tried to sneak it into class when she was younger. But of course, he was found out and caught. Mainly because he refused to share with Choji.

She had to hold in her snort, it looked like a 5 year old had drawn it. Though even then, she thought the 5 year old could do better.

A small nudge to her side caused her to jump, banging her knees off the table. Luckily no one had turned to look at her or heard it. Naruto sniggered beside her, popping a small blue piece of paper on her desk.

Sakura's eyes flickered to him, though he was acting as if he was concentrating on his work, then back down at the piece of paper. She looked at it sceptically, unsure of what to do. Nervously, she lifted it up and unfolded it. Reading what was written inside.

_How have you been? Haven't seen you in a long time. _

_- Naruto!_

Sakura glared at the messy handwriting, barely managing to decipher what he had wrote. Was that really all he cared about asking her? How she was doing? After all the years of torturing her?

Sakura fought the urge to punch him. Did he even remember bullying her? Because if not, she would eventually find a way to seek revenge.

Glowering, she scribbled her reply.

_Fine._

_-Sakura._

She passed the note back to him, hoping that would be the last of it. But in truth, she really wasn't fine. Far from it, she was a disaster inside. After all, she had been beat down too many times to count, she'd already given up and would happily embraced death as an old friend when it finally comes to take her.

She didn't like thinking about it, but she had came to terms with the fact she didn't like living the life of Sakura Haruno. What did she do in her past life to deserve this?

Though what Sakura really wanted to know was why everyone was treating her differently than before. It's not like they wanted to be her friend…

Sakura's eyes visibly widened.

_A prank. It's got to be a prank!_

There was another prod to her side, causing her to snap out of it. She turned to face Naruto. He was grinning, pointing at her desk. Turning back around, she found the small blue note.

She held in a heavy sigh and opened it.

_What you doing this weekend?_

_- Naruto!_

Her brow twitched and she scribbled down another reply.

_Nothing._

_- Sakura._

She placed it back on his desk gingerly and he quickly snagged it up and read it, his grin growing wider he quickly writ back before placing it back on her desk. Again, she opened it.

_Great! I'll see you then:D_

_- Naruto!_

What was that supposed to mean?

Huffing, Sakura went back to her drawing and gently began shading in her picture with great care. What she wouldn't do to leave school early and go home…

* * *

"What is it called when the menstruation ends in middle age?" asked Hinata, looking down at a sheet of paper, her cheeks slightly tinted a red hue.

If it's one thing Hinata and Sakura had in common at that moment, was they were overly embarrassed. Both looking like tomatoes.

Sakura's head felt a little dizzy, art had passed quicker than she thought and now she was in biology doing a quiz on the reproductive system. But that wasn't the main reason why she felt so light headed.

She had been placed in a team with Naruto, Hinata _and_ Sasuke. She was surprised to even see him in the same class as her. She tried keeping as far a way as she could but that attempt seemed futile. Naruto had dragged her once again to a set of seats which so happens to be situated next to Sasuke.

To say she was uneasy would be an understatement. She felt completely self conscious when his gaze fell upon her. Not to mention she lit up like a light bulb. It made matters worse when she was placed on his team for the quiz.

If her day couldn't get any worse, it just had.

Sakura sucked in a breath of air, noticing how Naruto and Sasuke had a confused look across their faces. And it made her think that they didn't know anything about the female reproductive system. They almost looked like cute puppies. Sakura shooed the thought from her head.

"Menopause…" whispered Sakura, wiggling in her seat uncomfortably when all sets of eyes fell onto her.

"That's right." gently replied Hinata in a soft voice.

Sakura looked down at her lap nervously. She couldn't help it, every time she looked at Hinata she swelled with envy. She was beautiful to say the least. Pale porcelain like skin, clear of any blemishes or blackheads. Completely smooth looking. Even her pale eyes were something to look upon with jealously. Not to mention she had an amazing figure from what Sakura could see.

And her hair. Sakura was so jealous. Long, indigo coloured hair that seemed to create a halo around her head in the sun.

If it was possible, Sakura's already tiny amount of confidence fell even lower. Hinata could probably give the Uchiha's a run for their money.

Naruto's face twisted into more confusing, squinting down at the sheet of paper in front of him. "What is the shedding of the lining of the uterus along with some blood once a month?" he asked in a high pitched voice, confusion thick in his voice. Sasuke even looked confused at the question.

Hinata and Sakura's face lit up simultaneously, blushing a deep beetroot colour.

Naruto looked up from his sheet of paper, looking wide eyed at Hinata and Sakura. "Why the hell do you bleed?!" he asked, sounding almost choked "Where? Does it hurt?!"

The two girls heated up even more, Sakura's already light head becoming even more dizzy.

"N-Naruto!" cried Hinata, sounding panicked. Sakura made a choking noise, heat coming off in waves from her body. Hinata was the same. Both girls heavily embarrassed.

"Well," said Sasuke, clearing his voice and a faint hint of pink across his cheeks as he tried to look away coolly. "What's the answer?" he seemed reluctant to ask, looking at Sakura from the corner of his eyes as if the question was directed toward her.

Sakura's heart gave a hard thump, her stomach fluttering angrily at her as if a cage of rampageous butterflies had been let loose inside her.

"Menstruation…" she squeaked out, her blush darkening.

Hinata was looking down, trying to hide her overheated face. Even Sasuke looked like he was about to burst into flames, though he tried to hide it and look impassive. Lucky for him no one was looking at him, so no one could see his faint blush.

Naruto however, was gaping in horror. He reached over the table toward Hinata, seriousness now written clearly across his face. "Hinata, you _bleed_ out of _there_?" he whispered.

There was a pregnant pause before Hinata's body visibly turned an angry red.

"Naruto!" Hinata squeaked loudly.

* * *

He watched her leave in silence. Relaxing as he leaned against the sleek black car, his onyx eyes never leaving her small retreating form. He watched as her feet shuffled their way out of the parking lot and made her way across the road. He just managed to catch a glimpse of her face when she looked both ways before crossing.

Sakura Haruno. Girl who mysteriously vanished from Konoha along with her parents.

To say Sasuke was shocked when he noticed her return had been an understatement. He almost panicked. _Almost_. But no, he was Sasuke Uchiha, he never panicked. He couldn't allow a weakness like that. Something had gotten the better of him, however. He had skipped a lot of classes because of Sakura Haruno.

Because of that pink haired girl, he lost a lot of focus. And that wasn't a good thing. It was dangerous. Not for him but for Sakura. No doubt today, his actions had gone noticed. _She_ would have heard because _she_ is everywhere.

The walls have ears apparently.

Every move Sasuke would make, every person he talked to, everywhere he went it would be reported to the devil. He is always being watched, whether he likes it or not. He had no say in the matter, he couldn't stop it. All because of _her_.

_Karin_.

Sasuke tasted venom in his mouth as he thought the name. He truly despised that woman. No one knew how much control she had over him, and it sickened him to know she could control him like a puppet. He hated it.

"Sasuke," purred a voice next to his ear. Sasuke tensed, he hadn't noticing anyone approach him.

_Speak of the devil…_

"Have you been thinking about me?"

Sasuke rolled his head to the side, his face expressionless and wiped off all emotions. He tiredly watched the devil in human skin. He just wanted to spit on it.

Her fiery red hair was curled neatly into small ringlets, bouncing with each step she made as she walked around to stand in front of Sasuke. She fluttered her eyelashes at him, her crimson eyes sparkling with the sun.

Sasuke snarled at her. She really disgusted him. "Of course," he bit sarcastically, eyes hardening and becoming colder. "What do you want, _Karin_?"

Karin straightened herself, placing a hand on her hip and her rosy lips tugging up into a smirk. Sasuke wanted to rip out his eyes and burn them. Karin always wore close far too small for her. Today it was a white skirt that barely covered her lower area and a navy blue top that showed way too much cleavage.

"Straight to the point as always," she laughed coldly. It made Sasuke want to vomit. "I want you," Karin stepped forward, placing a small hand on his chest. He wanted to slap it away, but stopped himself. The last thing he wanted to do was piss off the devil. "To get Sakura Haruno to fall in love with you."

Sasuke stared at her dumbly.

"Why?" he grunted, narrowing his eyes at her.

She heartlessly laughed again, taking a small step back before looking him in the eye. "So I can crush her all over again," she smirked "You have until the Christmas dance."

Sasuke's brow narrowed further.

"I want to see her break and crumble, Sasuke. I want to see her shatter into one thousand tiny little pieces in front of me. I want her to crawl back into her hole and-"

"-I get it, _Karin._" snapped Sasuke, glaring heatedly.

Karin smiled sweetly "Good. Then we have an understanding."

This wasn't good.

* * *

**Ah! You're all lucky I'm updating today, I've been blinded most of today because I was peeling and cutting so many onions! Haha:3 **

**But anyway, I'm sorry if there's any spelling errors and I really hope you enjoyed reading!**

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	11. It Doesn't Change Anything

**A huge thank you to you awesome reviewers!**

_**Tuliharja - **_**I put in the human reproductive system because I studied that in college when I was 16, in my third trimester and thought it would seem fitting:3 haha xD but it'll get to health education in later chapters:3**

_**Helensxs **_**- I most definitely didn't see what you were saying as a bad thing and you weren't sounding mean, it's refreshing knowing I'm getting an opinion and honesty. So thank you for that(: I really appreciate it!**

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_**MyGuiltyPleasure585 - **_**I've been trying to make things longer haha, but most times it doesn't work out the way I want it and I'm sorry for that, I'm looking after my baby nephew most days but I will assure you, they indeed will be getting longer:3**

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_**SasuSakuKawaii - **_**Everything shall be revealed in time!:3**

_**Silverwolfighter00 -**_** A lot of ideas like that have been playing on my mind actually, do maybe things might turn out like, or maybe not. You shall just have to wait and see(:**

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* * *

**~It Doesn't Change Anything~**

* * *

Sakura inwardly groaned.

It was P.E again.

She wasn't exactly thrilled.

Sakura glanced around from the back of the class, standing awkwardly in the gym hall. She could ether stay in the class or pretend to act ill to get out of class. She preferred the latter. She just didn't know if she could pull it off. Only one thing played to her advantage and that was her ghostly pale skin.

She hadn't exactly been eating properly since her arrival to Konoha, but even then she still didn't eat properly when she lived in Iwagakure. That was one of the reasons why she so pale, not to mention the terrible headaches she'd get. Sakura should have known better.

After all, she did have anaemia. And she hadn't exactly been taking her iron tables for the past few months. Though unfortunately for her it was coming back to haunt her. She'd been recently discovering she has been becoming more and more dizzy if she moved too fast, especially in the mornings. Accompanied by that were very bad headaches.

Some days it was even a struggle to get out of bed, it was like all her energy had been sucked dry out of her.

Sakura knew better. She should be taking her tablets, but with so much going on and her over thoughtful mind, she would forget to take them. She regretted it every time and it's not like she can take all of her tablets that she'd missed out on taking, all in the one go.

She didn't want to overdose. No. she definitely didn't want to go down that road again. It was complete _agony_.

Plus she wouldn't want to put her parents through that torture again. It broke her heart the first time.

Sakura dismissed the thought from her mind, and took another glance around. The students were getting into teams for some reason, but she hadn't been paying attention to what they were doing today.

She bit down on her lip, she didn't want to make a big scene of things. Sakura had been thinking about abruptly 'fainting' on purpose to get out of this. She definitely didn't want to do that.

So she did the only thing she could do. Confront the teacher. He'd have to understand about her condition. She didn't exactly get the chance to last week, and she wasn't thinking about it then so that didn't help.

She sighed and rubbed her arms, timidly walking up to her teacher. Gai.

"Ah! Hello there my youthful student, how may I help you!" Sakura cringed at his excited and grinning form. Was he always this loud and er, well excited?

Sakura swallowed her thick throat and took a deep breath. "I'm not able to participate in your class today, sir…" she mumbled, looking down. "I'm not feeling very well."

"Oh? What seems to be the matter?"

Sakura gulped, she didn't really like telling people her problems, mainly because she was never able to but if she took part in class today it would only cause an even bigger problem for her. She would just have to suck it up this time and prey it worked. It wasn't like she was lying or anything.

"I… well-uhm, I'm anaemic sir and today I'm not feeling to great…" she whispered quietly, hoping no one was able to hear her.

She was getting a few stares though. She hadn't bothered to change into her P.E attire for the reason she wasn't going to participate and had secretly planned out a few scenarios in her head but decided against all but one, that being to confront the teacher about the matter.

Though that wasn't the only reason, she hadn't put her hood up today. And she didn't know why, she had every reason to. She hated her hair after all, but something stopped her today and she couldn't figure out why. It bewildered her.

"Ah, very understandable. I presume you have some form of medicine for your illness?" asked Gai. Sakura looked up at him timidly. She suppressed her glare, he was still grinning. Was he happy she was ill?

Sakura nodded. "Yes sir, I do. Recently I've forgotten to take them…"

Gai's grin faltered, forming into a very serious frown. "Now Sakura, I understand if you forget, but I advise you to try to remember," suddenly, his seriousness vanished and replaced with an large smile, giving her some form of a 'good guy' pose as he gave her a thumbs up "I will gladly give you a list of things to boost your iron levels!"

Sakura's brow twitched. She didn't ask for this. "Uhm, you don't have to do that for me." she said nervously, raising her hands in defence, giving them a small wave.

"It's not a problem my dear student, we need you fighting fit for your gym periods!" he grinned wildly. "Come see me after class, I'll have it ready for you."

He spun Sakura around, giving her a gentle pat on the back before a small push forward. Sakura blinked as she robotically began to walk away.

_What just happened?_

"Sakura, Sakura!" cried out the annoying and squeaky voice of Ino. Sakura glared in the direction of the charging Ino, waving frantically with a panicked face. "Skip class with me, okay? I'm glad you agree, lets go!"

Blinking, Ino wrapped her arm around Sakura's, towing her out of the gym hall.

Lord help her.

* * *

"What do you want, Ino?" barked Sakura, plopping down on the school roof and folded her arms to gaze down at the empty and void school grounds.

She really couldn't put up with Ino today. Her head was thumping painfully against her skull, she was sure it was ready to break through the bone and jump out of her head. Why did she even want to skip class?

_Ugh. My head hurts…_

Sakura rubbed the side of her head where it hurt the most. Tenderly caressing it slowly. What she would do for a painkiller right now. It didn't help that it was just as hot out as yesterday, it only added to her annoyance, making her head excruciatingly more painful.

You could probably cook an egg on her egg at this point…

Ino pouted, sitting down next to her and smiled up at the sky, embracing the warmth. Sakura watched her from the corner of her eyes.

"Because…" said Ino, leaning forward, ripping her eyes from the sky. A light blush crept up her neck and fanned out across her pale cheeks. "Well, y-you know, you're a girl." Ino chewed her lip "Peri-"

"-I get it…" hissed Sakura, slightly shuffling away from Ino and hugged herself. A light blush on her own cheeks.

She wasn't used to this, how could she put it, 'girl talk'. She's never experienced it so she wasn't exactly sure how to react or say to such things. It also didn't help that she was heavily grumpy and cranky with her headache. She thought it had subsided on her walk to school, apparently not, it came back with a vengeance.

"Jee… What crawled up your ass?" laughed Ino, lying back on the school roof and lifted her arms above her head. A bird flew above them, causing Ino to squeal and roll to her side. "It better not shit on me…" she muttered to herself.

Sakura held in her smirk, silently wishing it did crap on her. Heavens, she did deserve it after all. She grimaced after a moment, calmly, she pushed her jeans at her ankles further down. The ground was hotter than she thought, she didn't want to walk around with burn marks on her feet.

Sakura refrained from leaning back and putting her hands on the ground, and instead, huddled up on herself. She hated the heat.

"Hmm…" hummed Ino "Nice weather we're having recently, huh?"

Sakura's eye twitched. Nice weather? Ha. It was torture for her. "I preferred the weather in Iwagakure…"

Ino shot up, looking at Sakura as if she'd grown another head. Sakura didn't realise that Ino was even looking at her, she was too interested in the grass near the school entrance. Ino pursed her lips, wanting to say something.

"Is… is that where you went?" she asked quietly. Sakura looked over her shoulder, brow narrowing. She nodded sharply. Training her eyes on the blond. Ino looked down, fumbling with her hands. "Oh…" she bit her lip and peaked up through her lashes "Why _did_ you leave?"

Sakura's eyes widened a fraction. She had the nerve to ask Sakura that? The arrogance! Acting like she didn't know anything, like nothing had happened between them as children. Ino should know, she was the little ring leader, always pushing Sakura around and bullying her, leaving her in tears almost every day.

Sakura snarled at Ino, spinning her body to look at the ignorant blond. "You should know _exactly_ why." she spat, standing up and looking down at her hatefully.

She surprised herself how bold she was. Never in her life has she actually stood up to any of her bullies, though she could sort of understand why. Her head was killing her and fuelled her bad mood.

Ino stood up, looking at Sakura, a mixture of confusion and sadness in her eyes. "I don't understand." she said, looking around nervously.

Sakura's body trembled with rage. Was she that blind? Could she not see what she did to Sakura? Ino struck fear into Sakura as a child, did Ino think what she did to Sakura as a child was okay?

Sakura pointed a finger at Ino. "Don't play dumb with me," she hissed venomously "_You_ are the reason I left, after the paint incident I-"

"What?!" screeched Ino, cutting off Sakura, shock dancing in her blue eyes. "You think _I_ did that?" she laughed half heartedly. "You really have no idea do you? After all those notes we gave you, you still don't understand?"

Sakura lowered her accusing finger, her body ceasing its shaking momentarily. "I remember the notes that you and _your_ cronies had wrote, insulting me and calling me names. What has that got to do with any of this?"

Ino shook her head, letting out a heavy sigh. "She did it again…" she muttered.

"Who?" barked Sakura, glaring heatedly.

Ino looked up sadly, shoulders sinking in defeat. "_Karin_."

Sakura thought for a moment. The name Karin didn't ring any bells. She couldn't even find a face to match the name. Was Ino making it up?

"If you calm down, I'll tell you about it, okay?"

Sakura pursed her lips. "Fine." she grumbled after a moment.

* * *

"…Karin isn't someone you should take lightly. If she threatens you, she very well means it." said Ino, leaning against the railings on top of the roof. Sakura watched her closely, listing just as intently.

"When we were kids, we had no intention on bullying you. Really, we _wanted_ to play with you but that little bitch thought it would be fun to find a target. That would be you Sakura. Karin found you as the easiest target, or so I think." Ino paused, glancing at Sakura's indifferent form before continuing.

"It didn't just happen over night, if you remember. It started off with one person bullying you. Me. And I'm not proud to admit it." again Ino looked at Sakura. She still remained calm, soaking everything in like a sponge. "Karin somehow managed to get dirt on all of us, and not just the normal dirt like 'who stole the last cookie'. It was bad stuff. She even managed to eventually get Naruto and Sasuke."

Sakura sharply looked at Ino but said nothing.

"I don't know how Karin even managed it, but eventually she got the whole school on your back. She thought it was funny, like you were some toy to entertain her. It was just sick. I took no pleasure in doing what I did. But when you left…" Ino inhaled a shaky breath "She wanted a new toy."

Sakura looked at her for a long moment. "Who?" she asked, raising a pink eyebrow.

Ino narrowed her eyes, looking off into the distance. "Me." she muttered.

Sakura thought for a moment, how could she know what she was saying, was the truth? It could be a big huge lie for all she knew. Part of what she has said made no sense to Sakura. She didn't even know a Karin, so had she done something to personally offend the particular person? To make her do something like that? To degrade Sakura into thinking she was nothing but something to be trampled on?

But still, even after what Ino has said, it didn't change the facts. It didn't change how Sakura thought about herself, not after this, not after this long and so many years of putting herself down as well as being put down by many others.

It changed nothing.

Sakura was still going to hate the way she looked, her size and her hair. Nothing could possibly change the way she thought. She could gain no confidence in this knowledge. She was passed the point of trying.

Sure, she wanted the answers but she didn't seem satisfied. What could have Karin did to make people do that to her? What could a child have done that was so bad, that they would allow themselves to be manipulated and used as a puppet? Seriously, what was it?

Sakura sighed through her nose.

"What kind of 'information' did this Karin get on everyone?" she asked after the prolonged silence.

Ino shrugged. "I really don't know. I'd heard that after awhile of you leaving, that the reason Naruto had bullied you was because Karin threatened to tell everyone he had a crush on you amongst other things. I'm not too sure."

Sakura blankly stared at Ino. Not believing one word.

"What about you?" asked Sakura, ignoring Ino's last answer.

Ino visibly tensed, but nonetheless, did eventually answer. "My mother…" she began quietly "Was having an affair with another man. Karin threatened to tell everyone if I didn't do what I was told. I was a child, Sakura. She wasn't just attacking me, she was attacking my parents and I wanted to protect them." Ino turned to Sakura with pleading eyes "I'm so, so sorry Sakura…" she sniffed "Can you ever forgive me?"

Sakura stiffened. Could she forgive Ino? The question really was, did she have it in her to forgive Ino?

Looking down from the roof, she huffed. "I don't know," she said, causing Ino to look away. "It's a lot to take in. I'll, uhm… I'll think about it."

* * *

The rest of the day passed as a blur for Sakura. Her head hurt tremendously, and on top of that she had a hell of a lot to think about after what Ino had said to her.

For the remaining classes that day, she was fully aware of the looks Ino was sending her way. She tried not to pay attention to them. She just wanted to block it all out, as much as she could anyway.

Lunch time wasn't any different. Ino lingered and hovered around Sakura awkwardly while Tenten and Naruto chatted away to them, unconscious to the nervous atmosphere. Even Hinata spoke to them for awhile. Though Sakura wasn't paying attention to any of them.

Her unfocused mind kept thinking back to Sasuke.

_What did Karin do to Sasuke?_

She had a constant frown on her face for the rest of the day even after she got back home. Sakura was in a daze when she stumbled through the front door, unintentionally finding her way to the kitchen to pull out a packet of untouched cigarettes.

She had thrown her bag onto the kitchen floor and marched out of the back door to sit on the bench. She was happy it was in the shade, she couldn't stand another second out in the sun.

Sighing heavily, she pressed a cigarette between her lips and lit up. Inhaling longingly.

It had been a hard day for her and no doubt she'd go to bed without eating, she didn't feel the slightest bit hungry. But she knew she should at least eat something, if it meant getting rid of her blasted headache.

It kind of reminded her that she had forgotten to speak to Gai after class. She wasn't too bothered by that though. She had her tablets there, what else did she need? Her diet would eventually sort itself out, she always went through phases of not eating to eating very little.

"Sakura!" called a voice.

Sakura dizzily looked up, eyes scrunching to focus properly. It didn't help anything, the sun was blocking her sight. She didn't want to glare up at ether, it would probably blind her. So she tried to squint harder to try and see what was going on or who was calling her.

But when that failed, she decided to stand up to try and see if she could have a look at the person who was calling her name. It didn't sound like Ino, so she thought it would be safe enough.

It was a bad idea though.

Her body wobbled as she stood. Her already light and dizzy head was worse and the cigarette didn't help since it usually made her light-headed.

Sakura groaned, black spots blurring her vision. Suddenly, her legs became nonexistent and she found everything moving in slow motion, her body plummeting to the ground until everything fell into darkness.

* * *

**Sorry if this chapter is a little crappy (I'll make it up to you in the next!) and again, sorry if there's any spelling errors!**

**But I hoped you enjoyed!**

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	12. A Secret Revealed

**A great big thank you to you lovely reviewers!**

_**AmyKpd**_

_**TheBloodyLoveOfSakuraHaruno **_

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**Thank you guys soooo much! You have no idea how much confidence you give me! Aaaahhh!**

* * *

**~A Secret Revealed~**

* * *

Sakura felt strange.

Her body didn't feel overheated anymore, instead it seemed to be replaced by something much cooler. It was comforting and she enjoyed it. If it wasn't for her sore head she would have felt content in lying there, on whatever it was she was lying on.

She twitched when she felt something warm brush against her cheek, lingering there. She wanted to shy away from it, she didn't like the warmth and wanted to stay in the cool. But there was something odd about the touch, it was at the tip of her tongue, she couldn't quite place it however.

Lethargically, she braced herself to open her closed lids.

"Sakura, come on, wake up." said a deep, husky voice. The warm breath brushing over her face, the mint smell drifting up her nose. She inhaled deeply, letting out a small groaning noise as her body began to move and stretch.

Who did the voice belong to?

The voice sounded vague and familiar, though she tried to place a face in her head, she couldn't quite get it. Her head hurt too much.

"Did she hurt herself when she fell?" came another voice, sounding almost strained. An image shot through her head, but too quick for her to look at who it was. But she had an inkling to whom it belonged to. She couldn't say for definite, for at the moment she was trying to keep her sore head at bay.

"She didn't fall," replied the first voice, sounding calm. "She fainted, and I have a good idea why, Naruto."

_Naruto?_

Where on earth was Sakura? Did he live near her? She hoped not. She doubted she could handle that. But, could it have been him that was calling her name? She wasn't too sure, she could barely even remember what had happened. She just remembered being, well, dizzy and very sore.

Sakura heard an audible gasp and she felt her brow frown. What was going on?

Something hot drifted across her stomach but disappeared just as quick, causing Sakura to instantly freeze. No. They couldn't see, they're _not allowed _to see. Not one is allowed to look at her there. Not even her. It was too shameful to look at, it was a reminded of who she was and what she could never be.

"What the…?" she heard a voice whisper, which Sakura guessed as Naruto. "Itachi? How… I don't understand…"

_Itachi?_ He was there too? She'd only met him once. Perhaps it was him calling her name instead of Naruto?

"Naruto, look," something pressed against her cheek again "Her cheekbones are practically sticking out, she looks almost transparent with her pale skin. Can you see the hollowness under her eyes? And her ribs are poking out too, it's a miracle how she even manages to walk around. It looks like she's been starving herself, malnutrition is my guess."

"But- But what about those marks on her stomach?"

_Shit_. So they really have seen the marks. This wasn't good for Sakura.

There was a long pause. She heard a quiet sigh. "Self inflicted. She mutilated herself." she heard Itachi mutter.

Sakura wanted to burst out into tears. She didn't want anyone to see them, she really didn't. Now two more people knew, maybe more, she didn't know. There could be other people there watching her and she couldn't see a thing.

A quiet whimper escaped her lips. Luckily, that went unnoticed.

"You mean… you mean she did _that_ to herself?" cried Naruto.

Sakura felt like something had stabbed her right in the chest, ripping it right open for the world to see. It was as if something was tight and constricting itself around her, squeezing her angrily. It was suffocating her.

_It hurts._

Sakura heard shuffling around her before the hot feeling that was on her stomach before, returned. It pressed itself lightly there, almost rubbing it as if it were going to make it all better.

It wasn't.

"Sakura," the voice of Naruto whispered into her ear "You're an idiot."

Sakura's already frozen body became stiffer and she just wanted to cry and scream out, though at nothing in particular though. She knew she was an idiot, if she thought what she had done was okay she would _still_ be doing it. Though after what she had already done, she had no excuse for the matter.

She didn't do it because she wanted to, or she felt like it. It was her escape. Her secret pleasure that made her feel better, even by just a little, it was a release.

What she had done felt like an addictive drug at the time, but when she thought about it now, which she would think about it as little as possible, she would be ashamed and disgusted with herself. Sakura was just glad her parents never knew. It would only cause trouble.

And that's the last thing she needed.

There was another sigh, before, which she assumed, was Itachi speaking up. "Sakura, come on. Time to wake up." he said, his voice louder.

Trying slowly, her heavy lids silently fluttered open.

She instantly cringed away from the light above her that shot into her vision, it stung her eyes, not to mention worsening her throbbing head. Sakura let out another pained groan, her head spinning and her eyes were blurry and unfocused.

* * *

Sakura grimaced.

Itachi had briefly spoken to her when she had woken up and once the haze she was feeling had worn off. According to him, Naruto was calling her from over the fence and had rushed to her aid when she collapsed before dragging her back over to his house.

He didn't go over the bigger things however. Sakura was silently thankful for that matter, it would be too much of an embarrassment not to mention she didn't want to explain herself to them. She barely even knew them.

But she had quietly thanked them for helping her and when she attempted to stand up and leave, she found her legs refused to work. Naruto had caught her before she fell though. She mentally scolded herself and told herself she should have listened to Itachi since he had told her not to try to stand or walk around for awhile.

She didn't know how she would handle the situation if Sasuke was there, it had been playing on her mind to why Naruto was there and Sasuke was not. She didn't dare ask. She felt too much of a bother as it was and asking questions would probably only bother them.

The first thing Sakura noticed when she had woken up was that she lying on a couch with Naruto closest to her and Itachi almost hovering over her. Both of them had a frown, which caused her to frown. She was of course, confused.

Sitting up even seemed harder than she thought but Naruto had helped her up, though she didn't like the close proximity of him, she tried to brush it off.

When her unfocused eyes began to focus, she quickly realised she wasn't wearing her jacket and had begun panicking when she didn't see it.

Itachi seemed to click on straight away why she was going into distress and reassured her that the only reason she didn't have her jacket on was because she was over heating and that he was trying to get her temperature down. In replacement he had given her a thin blue blanket to cover herself in.

She was more than grateful to take it.

But at this point right now, Sakura was feeling terribly guilty. Itachi said he would be ordering food for four. Since Sasuke hadn't returned back home, he would be able to have his food later and that just left Sakura, Naruto and Itachi. She didn't want to feel like a bother, and she wasn't feeling too hungry.

Though when she had said she wasn't hungry, both of the boys weren't having any of it and had picked out food for her instead and insisted she eat as much as she could, even if they had to force her.

She didn't like the thought of that so she went along for the time being.

Itachi had also been kind enough to give Sakura some painkillers for her sore head and a large glass of water. She didn't even know she was thirsty until he placed it in front of her and felt exceptionally embarrassed when she downed it all in the one.

Naruto had laughed at this, and Itachi gave a small chuckle before exiting the room to do god knows what.

As Sakura began to survey the room, she actually came to find it was actually very beautiful to look at.

The room itself was very large and the walls were painted a royal blue with random golden stripes along the bottom of the walls. The floor itself was wooden with a cosy looking black rug in front of the couch she was sitting in (Which was pressed against the back wall) which was placed under a glass table.

On the other wall, in front of her, hung, what she guessed was, a family portrait. She recognised Sasuke immediately and she had to force herself to look away from his innocent and young looking form. She would have guessed he was no older than five in the picture. He sat snugly on a woman's lap, a large smile plastered across his face.

Behind the woman was a man who had a hand placed onto her shoulder and a tiny ghost of a smile against his lips. On the other side of the woman, Sakura could only guess was Itachi.

She was envois. They looked perfect.

Looking away from the picture, directly underneath was a large flat screen television which was not switched on.

On random corners of the room, there were also the odd potted plant.

To the right of Sakura was a set of large glass doors leading out into the garden, so she was able to see her house just across the way.

"Sakura?" Naruto whispered from beside her on the couch. Sakura's head whirled around to him, noticing a deep frown on his face as he stared ahead of her. He sat up with his feet on the couch, cross legged and his hands were placed gently on his lap. "Are-are you okay?" he strained out, his voice sounding oddly thick.

Sakura blinked, unsure of what he meant. "Yes." she said after awhile, turning to look back outside the window.

She'd noticed straight away that the sun was no longer out and in replacement was a half moon, shining brightly in the sky and accompanied by dozens of stars.

"Are you sure? I mean, y'know, I saw those _marks_…"

Sakura's head spun back around, her eyes slightly wide. She was hoping he wouldn't bring that up. Her hand instinctively flew to her stomach under the blanket. She could feel the tiny bumps under her thin top she wore. It didn't hurt like it used to, but it had been over a year since she had done that.

They were nothing but scars now. They hadn't fully healed yet and disappeared yet, the scars itself were still a red colour whereas others had already begun turning white.

"It's nothing…" mumbled Sakura, looking down at the floor. What was he hoping she told him? Did he expect her to open up to him? That wasn't going to happen. Not any time soon anyway. She didn't exactly know how to open up to anyone, and if she did let anyone in, there was always the chance she would get hurt.

That was the last thing she wanted.

"How could you say that?" Naruto asked, his voice louder this time, almost angry. Sakura chewed her dry lips. She felt Naruto shake through the couch, but continued to ignore the question. She wasn't wanting to get into it. Not after the already long day she's had, especially after Ino…

Sakura shook the thought off. She didn't want to think about that.

After a few more seconds, the shaking stopped and Naruto asked another question. "I bet it's lonely, you know…" Sakura felt her eyes drift back up to him, taking in him sombre form. Was it pity?

Naruto looked up at her this time, his constantly happy blue eyes clouded over with a sadness. "Right?" Sakura said nothing, a small lump forming in her throat which she tried to swallow back. "I know what that feels like, it's horrible, I wouldn't want anyone to feel like that…"

Sakura tensed as Naruto moved forward, removing his feet from the couch so he could slide closer to her. Her heartbeat picked up as she watched carefully with his movements. Her eyes widened when he shot forward, grabbing Sakura and pulling her into his hard chest. His arms circled around her, tightening.

"I'm sorry…" he whispered into her hair. Sakura really had no idea what to make of the current situation, but it didn't exactly feel awkward. It was a strange feeling and it made her chest hurt bad, like something inside her was squeezing hard on her.

Her eyes began to cloud over as she held back her emotions. It would be weak if she let them through and she couldn't be weak anymore. Not after so much had happened to her.

"I'm sorry…" Naruto whispered out again in a strained voice, his own body shaking lightly.

"Well isn't this cute." came the humorous voice of Itachi. Sakura tensed up. "I just came in here to tell you the food was here and I find you two cuddling," she heard him chuckle "Hurry up and let her go Naruto, I'm going to get a few plates."

Sakura chewed her lip, biting back a smile.

_A cuddle? It feels nice…_

* * *

Itachi poked his fork toward Sakura, swallowing the food in his mouth. The three of them were sitting around the small glass table in the middle of the room. Naruto next to Sakura and Itachi on the other side of them.

"I want you to stay here for a few day," he said out of the blue. Sakura looked up, shocked. He wanted her to what? "Just until you get your strength back. If I send you back home and you faint again, no one will be around to know. It's for your own safety and I don't exactly want that on my conscience if _I do_ find out you've fainted again and no one was around."

Sakura blinked.

_What?_

"No school ether, it will only stress out your body."

She blinked again. She didn't get it.

"Cool! It'll be like a big sleepover!" Naruto exclaimed, a grin gracing his face. Sakura turned to look at him wearily. Was Naruto staying here too?

"Naruto, I don't want you to bother Sakura too much. You'll be going to school to pick up her homework to give them to her. Also, Sakura you will be staying in the guests room and Naruto," Itachi turned to give him a stern look "I don't want you in that room at night, if you must be in her room then I want the door open at all times. I will be informing Sasuke of this when he gets back home."

Sakura's face lit up. She completely forgot about him for the moment.

Wait, didn't she get a say in this matter?

Naruto pouted. "You're no fun, what do think we'd get up to anyway?" Itachi shook his head at that and Sakura had to admit he could be a bit dense sometimes.

"My house, my rules." replied Itachi. "Also, Sakura. I'll be going to the chemist tomorrow to pick up some vitamin tablets, is there anything else I should get? Or anything you should inform me on? This is very important."

Sakura thought for a moment.

Should she tell him about her anaemia? After a moment of deciding, she nodded to herself. She really had no idea where the sudden confidence came from, but she did like the feeling and hoped it would last and stick around a little longer.

"I'm anaemic. I take iron tablets." she replied quietly, looking down at her half eaten plate of food. She had been reluctant to eat at first, she never really liked eating in front of people and it made her uncomfortable. But when Itachi reminded her that he wouldn't hesitate to force it into her mouth, it kind of changed her perspective a little.

Itachi nodded sharply. "Do you have any current tablets at home?" he asked, his voice serious.

Sakura cleared her voice. "Yes. But I keep forgetting to take them…" she mumbled, glancing out the window.

"You shouldn't forget to take them." said Naruto through his mouthful of food. Sakura shrugged, she didn't do it intentionally.

Itachi nodded in agreement. "For today, I'll give you some clothes to sleep in but it might be a little too big on you, considering your small physique."

Sakura bit down on her cheek. She didn't know if she liked that idea or not.

"I have some boxers if you want them." grunted Naruto, still taking with a mouthful of food. Sakura blushed at the notion before shaking her head furiously.

Itachi rolled his eyes, giving a small humorous smile. "That wont be necessary, Naruto. I'll take Sakura back to her house tomorrow to help her pick out some clothes for her stay."

Naruto simply shrugged, muttering under his breath as he ate happily.

After a small time of more eating, Sakura summoned her courage and asked the question that seemed to be plaguing her mind.

"You-you wont tell anyone will you?" she whispered, keeping her head down like she was expecting to be scolded.

Naruto and Itachi looked up at her. "It's not in my place to say." Itachi spoke up first, followed by Naruto.

"Of course not, Sakura! You can trust us."

Could she really? Come to think about it, why were they even helping her? Had she done something to merit their attention into helping her? She's never need it, nor asked for it before.

There was a sudden slam of a door, causing Sakura to jump, her heart giving a large leap of fright. She clutched the blanket to her chest unintentionally. Itachi glanced up at the empty doorway.

"I'm home." muttered a voice from the distance.

Sakura's face heated up instantaneously.

Everything seemed to just get a lot more complicated for Sakura.

* * *

**So sorry if there's any spelling errors! **

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	13. Morning Surprise

**Wow! 100 reviews! I never knew I'd get that many! And I have only you guys to thank for this, aaaahhh oh my thank you guys soooo much!**

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* * *

**~Chapter 13: Morning Surprise~**

* * *

Sakura glanced over her shoulder nervously, chewing her lip subconsciously. Sasuke stood in the doorway, blanking staring at the three surrounding the glass table. He blinked once before turning back around and walking away.

Sakura let out a long breath of air and turned back to Itachi, who seemed deep in thought. Had something happened between the two? She couldn't be sure.

She peaked down at her half eaten plate of food, awkwardly mixing it around with her fork. It was still warm, she could eat the rest if she wanted to. But she was sure if she ate anymore, her stomach was going to pop and her guts would spill out. She really didn't know how she was going to sleep tonight, especially on a full stomach since she's not exactly eaten much of late.

She was just waiting on the cramps.

That's what happened before when she abruptly stopped eating and then started again. She filled up pretty fast when she started eating again, the only thing that bothered her was her full stomach and the bad craps afterward. Sometimes even her teeth hurt if she didn't eat for awhile, luckily not this time.

There was a sudden buzzing noise that erupted from Naruto. Naruto jumped, his arms flopping up and bumping Sakura's chin.

Sakura wobbled a bit, unsure of what had happened before turning to give Naruto a half glare. He sheepishly waved apologetically while flipping out his phone, his brow frowning before abruptly standing up. He turned to leave the room, typing quickly into his phone before flipping it shut.

"I'll be a moment, going to go call Hinata." he looked over his shoulder, giving a large smile. "I'll be back in a flash!"

And with that said, Naruto dashed out of the room.

Sakura fidgeted uncomfortably in her sitting position, continuing to play with her food. Was Naruto and Hinata an item? In some sort of relationship? Sakura wondered on that. She'd seen the way Naruto reacted toward Hinata in biology class. And from the way Hinata was acting, it was obvious she sort of liked him. Unless she acted around that with every guy, Sakura doubted that.

She shook her head. It was none of her business prying into other peoples love lives. She was curious, don't get her wrong, but she's never really had a love life so she's curious to actually see how it's played out in real life.

Sakura's seen many movies, romantic ones that is. And they all seemed a bit, how could you put it, farfetched? The likely hood of someone falling in love with another at first glance sounds stupid, sure, there could be a physical attraction somewhere, maybe sometimes mutual but falling in love at first sight? It makes Sakura laugh.

Seeing it first hand could maybe give her the right idea of what it means for a relationship to work. It was obvious movies weren't going to help her. So why not just observe? It couldn't be too hard.

"You've still got that cute face." Itachi said, breaking Sakura out her train of thought. Her head snapped in his direction, puzzled to what he was meaning. What was wrong with her face? "I remember when I used to baby sit you, you'd always have a thoughtful face. Cute."

Sakura's face burned brightly. Her hands instinctively flew to her face, as if trying to cover it. Itachi's lip twitched, revealing a ghost of a smile. It was faint, but Sakura noticed it. It made her face burn up more.

But she didn't understand what he meant. He used to baby sit her? Surely she would have remembered something like that. After all, he _is _and Uchiha. She would have remembered.

Sakura frowned and Itachi sighed. "You wouldn't remember that though, would you?" he raised an eyebrow as Sakura shook her head. If he was telling the truth, she was glad she didn't remember. He sighed again and rolled his shoulders. "You were a baby at the time," Itachi chuckled at Sakura's bemused face. "Your parents and my parents knew each other quite well. I would often bring Sasuke along and you'd have play dates together. I'm sure I have a picture around here somewhere…"

Sakura flushed even more and the feeling to faint again began to overwhelm her. Her head spun lightly. Her and Sasuke would play together as babies? Why hadn't anyone told her. She let out a small groan and slumped forward.

She felt humiliated.

Itachi chuckled again and waved it off. "Maybe I should tell you another time, you look rather tired."

Sakura mindlessly nodded her head, unable to get the right words out. Sleep would be nice, she's already had a hard day and had a lot to process.

Numbly, she attempted to stand, but only to find her legs caved in on her as soon as she attempted. Sakura frowned at attempted again, this time trying to use to table for support. She smiled to herself when she eventually managed to stand up right.

But that was short lived when her legs began to wobble unstably, threatening to give up on her again. She gave a short gasp when something snaked around her wait, giving her extra help to stand up. Her head spun around, meeting the amused gaze of Itachi. She blushed, trying to pry herself loose.

His amused onyx eyes quickly replaced themselves with serious ones, giving Sakura a stern look. "Sakura," he said as Sakura tried to pull away "I'm here to help you, please, stop struggling or you'll just ware yourself out."

Sakura froze as Itachi bent down and quickly scooped Sakura up, holding her gently against his chest. She let out a meek squeak of fright, staring wide eyed at the Uchiha. He chuckled at her expression, bending down again to pick up the fallen blanket and draped it over her.

"I'll carry you to the guest bedroom."

* * *

Itachi gently placed Sakura onto the double bed, careful not to jostle her or move abruptly. She slowly began to relax when Itachi pulled away.

He pinched the bridge of his nose before scratching his chin. "You're lighter than I expected," he muttered, shaking his head before looking her in the eye. "Is there anything I can-"

"-Itachi?" grunted a voice from outside the door. Sakura peaked around before quickly using Itachi as a shield to block her sight. She suppressed her blush and looked down. Sasuke was standing outside, looking up at his brother in puzzlement. "What're you doing in the guest room?"

Itachi turned around and moved to the side, revealing Sakura. Sakura didn't look up though. "Sakura is going to be staying with us for awhile, she's… a little sick."

Sasuke looked down at Sakura's small form, arching an eyebrow before glancing back up at his brother. "That doesn't explain why you're in the guest room."

"He was helping me…" muttered Sakura, surprising herself that she even spoke up. "I cant walk." she gnawed her lip nervously.

Sasuke frowned, suspicious. "If you cant walk, then why aren't you in the hospital?"

Sakura automatically looked up at Itachi with pleading eyes. He rolled his own, turning to Sasuke. "She's just feeling a little dizzy. Now can you go find her something to wear for her to sleep in?" Itachi raised his own brow at Sasuke's blank face.

Sasuke took another glance at Sakura, before spinning around and walking down a corridor.

"Well," Itachi cleared his throat, straightening his back. "I'll just leave you to settle in, Sasuke shouldn't be too long."

Sakura nodded as Itachi retreated out the room.

* * *

Itachi was right in saying Sasuke wouldn't be long. Actually, Sasuke appeared just as Itachi left, holding a bundle of clothing in his hands. He had lingered in the doorway, before furiously shaking his head before boldly stomped into the room, dropping the clothes over Sakura.

Sakura had squeaked, falling back onto the bed, flushing as the blanket slid down a little over her upper half. She had quickly regained her composure and muttered a quiet thank you.

Sasuke stood in front of her for a few moments, frowning deep in thought before, just like Itachi, left silently.

* * *

The next day, Sakura had awoken to the smell of bacon. Her emerald orbs fluttered open. She let out a small sigh and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

The first thing she realised, was that she was not in her bed. Instead, she found herself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. She frowned at it, trying to make sense of things. She turned her head to the left and then to the right, as if it would change back into her own bedroom ceiling. But the more she tried, the more it seemed even more different.

Sakura heard a muffled noise from near by, something brushing softly against her leg.

She froze, slowly turning her head completely to the right. What she saw made her blood run cold.

There was a pair of feet on the pillow next to her. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. Making sure she was seeing what she was seeing. Though when they didn't disappear, she reached up her hand to poke one of the feet.

There was a gentle giggle coming from somewhere close and the feet pulled down, out of her sight of vision.

Sakura nervously lifted herself up with shaky arms, looking down at a large lump under the covers. She noticed straight away, that these covers weren't hers. Nor did anything else in the room look familiar to her. Everything was different shades of blue.

She frowned deeply, reaching over and grabbed a handful of the covers over the large lump. Hesitantly, she ripped them back.

Sakura choked, blushing wildly before letting out an ear bursting scream.

* * *

"Naruto, what were you doing in the same bed as Sakura?" Itachi asked in an irritant voice, placing a plate of food in front of Sakura.

The three found themselves once again in the living room, sitting around the glass table. Sakura and Naruto on one side, and Itachi on the other side.

Sakura hadn't completely calmed down, her skin still burned with embarrassment. Especially after Itachi had charged into the room she was in, looking slightly panicked. He had dragged Naruto out of her room by the hair, almost hauling him down the stairs. Poor Naruto didn't even know what was happening until he collided with a wall.

As soon as Sakura had seen Itachi, however, the memories from yesterday had washed over her. She wasn't too thrilled. Not one bit.

"Eheh… I don't know," said Naruto, scratching his cheek sheepishly. He turned to Sakura, a sudden look of seriousness. "I swear I didn't mean to sleep with you!" Sakura's previous blush returned, turning her skin red from head to toe.

Itachi sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I almost forgot to mention to you, Sakura," he muttered, catching Sakura's attention. She turned to look up at him, trying to hide her face. "Naruto- he has a tendency to sleepwalk. _But_ he's never walked in or joined neather me or Sasuke in our beds. We usually find him in the kitchen the morning after. Care to explain, Naruto?"

Itachi shot Naruto a glare, crossing his arms tightly across his chest.

Naruto shrugged lightly. "I really don't know." he said "Maybe I thought Sakura was food." he mused, giving a grin. Sakura frowned at that. She didn't like the idea or thought of that.

Itachi continued to glare at Naruto. "This isn't a time for joking, Naruto. You could have traumatized the poor girl."

"I resent that."

"Anyway, Naruto why aren't you in school?" Itachi side glanced out the window, Sakura followed his trail, leading to the garden. She bit her cheek. The sun was already out. So she guessed Sasuke would have already left for school, but if that was the case, then shouldn't he have tried to find Naruto and drag him to school with him?

Naruto shrugged. "I guess I didn't get up in time," he gave a short laugh, scratching the back of his head. "Plus it was pretty cosy in bed with Sak-"

Sakura curiously tore her gaze away from the window to see why Naruto had stopped talking. She blinked, realising he had a mouthful of food harshly shoved into his mouth and an irritated looking Itachi at the other end of the table.

He turned to give Sakura a small, forced smile. He lifted up a blue plastic bag from beside him and placed it on the table, pushing it toward her. "I got the vitamins at the pharmacy, I also picked up some extra iron pills. I expect you to take one of each, and," he turned back to Naruto with a sharp look "I will be instructing Naruto to see to it and in case you forget. _Right, Naruto?_" he bit.

Naruto swallowed, nodding quickly.

Sakura blushed, rubbing her hands nervously. "You didn't have to do that for me…" she mumbled meekly.

Itachi shook his head and stood up. "It's not a bother. Now, I'll be leaving for a few hours to take care of some business. Sasuke's already left for school so he'll be picking up your homework for you."

Sakura nodded dumbly. "Okay." she squeaked.

"Good. Now you two take care, and don't break anything while I'm away Naruto."

Naruto gave a glare.

"By the way, Sakura, why are you wearing Sasuke's clothes?" Naruto asked as soon as Itachi left the room. Sakura's head swirled toward him, her jaw dropping.

_She's wearing Sasuke's clothes?!_

* * *

**Sorry if there's any spelling errors! Been in a rush today with all the baking going on at home!:3**

**ALSO! Sasuke is going to be in plenty of the next chapter! Sorry if you've been wanting to see him more! I'll make it up for you in the next one!**

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	14. Curious

**A huge, huge, huge thank you to you awesome reviewers!**

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**_UchihaSarah926_ - There definitely is a big reason to why Sasuke is acting like this, it'll all be revealed in time though C:**

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**~Chapter 14: Curious~**

* * *

Sakura breathed out a sigh of relief.

She relaxed against the wall outside in the back garden of the Uchiha house, sitting in the shaded area. It was still hot out, like the other days, but the shade offered her relief plus it was cool and slightly chilled. Sakura stretched her legs out and relaxed against the wall.

She wasn't alone though. No, Naruto decided to take the day off from school to keep her company and she didn't understand why he would do that for her. Part of her didn't mind for some reason, though another part of her felt like she was just a bother and a nuisance.

Naruto sat not far from her, lying on his stomach on the grass out in the sun. He hadn't changed into normal outdoor clothing, no he was still in pyjamas. Bright orange boxer shorts and a bright orange top to match. It almost blinded Sakura when they stepped outside, it contrasted painfully with his bright yellow hair. Almost dazzling her.

The two had just recently finished breakfast and that's when Naruto began to complain he was bored. Sakura had silently suggested sitting outside, though she never vocalised it, she just pointed toward the two large sliding glass doors. Naruto agreed nonetheless.

Sakura herself, was trying to wash away the thoughts that she was wearing Sasuke's clothes. They were comfy, yes, they drowned her body too, that was always a plus. It was a simple blue top with matching baggy sweatpants.

Not only that, but this was the first time Sakura had ever worn just a top without a jumper or a jacket. It was the first time she's actually shown her arms. Granted, they were extremely pale and thin, even lanky, but it felt nice to have and feel the gentle breeze brush across them. It had been a long time, and she forgot how good it felt.

Sakura was even tempted to roll the sweatpants trouser legs up, to let the fresh breeze touch them. She didn't do it though, allowing her arms to show was good enough, and an amazingly large leap for her. It wasn't that she was scared to show them, she had just gone so long hiding her body it had become a bad habit.

It's not like there was any marks on her arms like on her stomach. She could never risk doing anything like 'that' to her arms. She would be just asking to be caught if she tried it there. It wasn't like she wanted to be caught ether. She didn't want anyone knowing. But now two more people knew…

"Ne, Sakura, you should eat more." bluntly spoke Naruto, resting his chin in his hands as he gazed up at her, swinging his legs in the air behind him while he was on his stomach.

Sakura's own gaze drifted up to Naruto, unsure of what to make of his comment. Her bare feet pressed against the shortly cut grass she was sitting on, her toes curling and wiggling against it. She brushed a hand through her long hair, brushing through the knots and tangles from her sleep.

"What makes you say that?" she asked after a moment of silence.

Naruto rolled his baby blue eyes and sighed. "You're too skinny." again, he was extremely blunt. Sakura ripped her gaze away from him, falling to her lap. She never replied. Another moment of silence rolled by before Naruto huffed and sat up, crossing his legs and squinted his eyes at Sakura. "What's your favourite colour?" he asked out of the blue.

Sakura looked back up at him, puzzlement dancing in her emerald orbs. "What?" she blurted, blinking three times.

"Well?" Naruto shrugged, picking at the grass.

Sakura gulped. "I don't know… red, maybe?"

Naruto raised a delicate eyebrow but never replied. Instead he decided to fall back on to his back to he was lying on the grass, face looking up at the cloudless sky. Sakura puffed her cheeks, she had been wanting to ask him a question since yesterday. Would she bother him if she asked? Hopefully it didn't, she was bothering enough people as it was.

"Naruto?" she whispered. Naruto peaked around at her. She frowned as she fought for words. "Why do you live with the Uchiha's?"

To her surprise, Naruto grinned and looked back up at the sky. "My godfather travels a lot," he began "I never seem him that much, but when he is here he's always got a new apartment. Because I'm underage, I need to live with an adult to be looked after. Itachi and Sasuke took me in and looks after me until my godfather returns."

Sakura nodded in understanding, but didn't push the subject. She was just a little curious.

* * *

Sakura's brow twitched. How she found herself in this predicament was beyond her. How she agreed to it was another mystery. It just sort of happened. Out of nowhere. The idea was pulled out of complete thin air.

And it bothered her.

"Sakura~" sang Naruto, lightly brushing her hair with a comb. "It doesn't hurt when I brush your hair, right?"

Sakura shivered, stiff from the direct contact of Naruto's hands going through her hair and touching her scalp. "No." she muttered, folding her arms tightly across her chest.

Naruto had come up with the fabulous idea of playing with her hair. Sakura had refused at first, but Naruto continued to press on it. Whining and moaning that he was bored and her hair interested him.

She thought guys preferred rolling around in the dirt, not playing with ridiculously coloured hair. Apparently not. Though why he found her hair intriguing baffled her. There was nothing interesting about it. It just stuck out, not to mention it was tangled half the time and it was just a bother to try and brush it.

It was useless to attempt to treat her hair.

"How about we go and wash your hair?"

"No." hissed Sakura, insulted. She puffed her cheeks irritatingly where a light pink tinge formed across the bridge of her nose.

"Spoil sport…" muttered Naruto, continuing to comb through her long hair.

The two were still sat outside, though Sakura was now facing the wall in the shade because she refused to sit in the sun and because Naruto didn't want to sit in the shade. It suited them both and they both got their own way. Though where Naruto had found the comb was another mystery. He didn't even stop to go inside to collect one.

Sakura felt Naruto brush his hands at the nape of her neck, collecting bundles of her hair in his hands as he pushed it up. She was confused to what he was doing, but let him continue nonetheless. He pushed her long fringe back that concealed her face, she wanted to protest to that but for some reason she stayed quiet.

Few strands of hair fell from the corners of her face, but it was easily ignored since now her whole face was showing. She was extremely unsure of this.

There was a few tugs and pulls here and there, until Naruto leaned back and gazed at his masterpiece. A bright smile graced his face. He had pulled the majority of Sakura's hair into a messy but neat bun, and without a bobble, he was proud of himself.

"Done!" exclaimed Naruto, hopping back.

Sakura blinked and turned to face him. What exactly had he done? Naruto pointed to look in the glace doors, since there was no obvious mirror lying around, she could look at her reflection in the mirror.

She hesitated though.

Sakura hadn't looked at her reflection in a long time. She didn't want to start now ether. She frowned as a pang of guilt thumped against her chest. Naruto seemed enthusiastic about what he'd done and it would be a lie is Sakura said she wasn't interested in looking.

She puffed her cheeks again, she didn't have to look at her face.

Deciding against her better judgement, she crawled over to the sliding glass doors and peered up, before ripping her gaze away just as quick. She didn't get a direct look, since most of her face was showing and she couldn't exactly see the back of her head.

She sighed and turned to Naruto, forcing a smile. That only caused Naruto to beam, not noticing the strain in her eyes.

* * *

Sakura peaked over the deck of cards in her hands. Naruto was frowning furiously into his own deck of darks.

The duo had spent the most part of the morning outdoors, it hadn't bothered Sakura as much as she thought. Actually, the more she spent time with him, the more comfortable she became though there was still that nagging feeling inside of her, telling her to keep her distance and to keep away.

She even came to find herself enjoying her time with Naruto, she never thought that was ever possible. She had not once ever imagined spending time with Naruto like this, it just never occurred to her that he could be a 'nice' guy other than the way he portrayed himself in front of her when they were younger.

It seemed like for the first time she could somewhat speak normally to a person, to an extent of course. She still had a small stutter, she was still nervous, she was still unsure of everything but the more time she spent with Naruto, as each second ticked by, she became more and more relaxed and comfortable.

It was over all very confusing for Sakura but she bathed in the feeling, enjoying it while it lasted. Of course, assuming it was eventually going to end.

"Got any eights?" dully asked Naruto, peaking up to meet Sakura's awaiting gaze.

Sakura shook her head. "Go fish." she replied, offering a light smile.

Naruto groaned, picking up another card, adding it to his deck of already overflowing cards. "This is so boring," he whined in protest, throwing his cards up into the air. "Cant we do something else?" he pleaded, flopping down onto his back and banged his head off the ground.

"There's nothing else to do…" muttered Sakura.

Naruto groaned again, rolling onto his side, facing in the direction of her house. "Well, what do you do in your spare time?" he asked with a yawn.

Sakura shrugged, placing her cards down. "Nothing. But sometimes I read books."

There was another groan from the blond as he rolled back onto his back and looked up at the sky with tiredness. "That even more boring…" he muttered, earning a shrug from Sakura.

Suddenly, he shot forward, leaning in toward Sakura, noses almost touching. Sakura squeaked, and slid back. Her heart beginning to hammer in her chest. Naruto crawled forward, a devious glint in his eyes.

"Lets raid Sasuke and Itachi's room and see if they're hiding any hentai-"

Naruto made a choking noise and was abruptly hauled back. Causing Sakura to squeal in surprise.

Looming over Naruto, gripping the back of his shirt stood Itachi. Glaring down at Naruto before turning to Sakura with a strained smile. "Did he hurt you, Sakura?" he asked.

Sakura blinked. "Uh…" she mumbled stupidly "No."

Itachi nodded before turning down to Naruto, his glare returning. "And you, why aren't you in school?"

Naruto looked up at him with an innocent expression, laughing nervously. "I, you know, thought I could keep Sakura company today."

* * *

Itachi hadn't been back five minutes before he asked Sakura to accompany him to her house to collect a few of her belongs. Such being clothes, toiletries and so forth. Sakura had quietly followed after him. Naruto however, stayed rooted to the ground, staring after them, unsure if to follow or not.

It didn't take long for her to gather her belongings. Though she felt the need to hurry around her room. Itachi had been waiting for her at the entrance of her house, though he didn't seem to mind. He seemed quite interested in the baby and family pictures of Sakura on the table next to the stairs.

Sakura made note of to put them in a safer place when she returned home the next time. She had forgotten about them up until then and it was embarrassing for someone no more than an acquaintance to ogle at them.

The two had of course returned quietly back, though Itachi had reminded Sakura to give him her parents phone number since it would seem important for them to know about her current health and situation.

Sakura reluctantly agreed but was quickly reassured by Itachi that he would leave out the bigger problems. Such being her underweight appearance and her 'markings'.

* * *

"Naruto, did you remind Sakura to take her tablets?" asked Itachi, sitting on the couch quietly. Sakura sat on the floor closest to the door leading into the garden. Naruto sat in the centre of the room, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

"Eh-heh, about that-"

"-I took them. Naruto didn't need to remind me." Sakura mindlessly butted in, rubbing her bare arms tenderly. Naruto was kind enough to spend the day with her, and had also comforted her yesterday. She felt obliged to protect him from Itachi, maybe only this once, but it was a feeling she couldn't help to suppress. She just felt like she had to for some strange and bizarre reason.

Naruto shot her a thankful smile.

Itachi nodded. "Good…" he muttered, clearing his throat he folded his arms and looked between the two. "I see there is nothing broken," there was an audible gulp from Naruto. Had he broken something without Sakura's know about? "And Sakura doesn't seem harmed in anyway. I must say Naruto, this is a first."

Naruto chuckled nervously, continuing to scratch the back of his head.

Itachi began to stare at Naruto, his onyx orbs stabbing into Naruto as if expecting him to say or do something.

"So…" Naruto said in a shaky voice "How has your day been Itachi?" he laughed, changing the subject.

Itachi leaned back slightly. "It's been interesting."

"Right, right, yeah. Eheh, interesting."

There was a long pause before Itachi stood up, giving Naruto a one over before looking at Sakura. Sakura peaked up at him, chewing her lip. "I do like what you've done to your hair by the way." Sakura blushed, side glancing at Naruto. "But as much I'd like to stay to keep you company, I have a lot of work today and was only stopping in to check on you. I want you to make sure you eat something for lunch, so help yourself."

Sakura nodded mindlessly.

* * *

Sakura really had no idea what she was doing. She numbly stood at the top of the stairs, listening to her mind scream and shout at to get out and retreat while she was ahead of herself. Her whole body protested against what was happening, but even then, she was just so curious.

Naruto, with his devious thinking mind, had coaxed her into raiding Sasuke bedroom- not so much Itachi's.

Though Sakura didn't dare enter his bedroom, and instead insisted on peeking from the stairs even though she couldn't see a damn thing from her position. She couldn't only stand awkwardly as she heard Naruto giggle from the bedroom. She really had no clue to why he was giggling so much.

Had he found something out? Or found something?

She heard him giggle again, singing to himself. "Sasuke, you bad boy!" more giggles broke through the bedroom, through the landing and toward the stairs.

Sakura blushed, not from embarrassment. Reason being, she blushed because she didn't know. Naruto could have been talking about anything. It couldn't be something bad, right? It couldn't be. Nope. Definitely not. It was Sasuke Uchiha, he never hid anything or tried to for that matter.

"Oh ho ho, what's this I see?" Naruto sang cheerfully from the bedroom "Icha Icha Paradise hmm? Sasuke you naughty boy!"

Sakura blushed more heatedly this time. Remembering the filthy name of the horrible book. She shivered. What would Sasuke be doing with a book like that? It couldn't be his, right?

Suddenly Naruto burst through the bedroom in a blind panic, bolting toward Sakura at rocket speed. But before he could stop himself at the stairs, he ran straight into her, causing them to both stumble and fall down the stairs.

Sakura got the worst end of it. Since she was underneath and all, she was basically crushed by Naruto's weight plus the nasty bumps from the stairs smacked harshly against her back, head and legs.

She mentally cursed when they hit the bottom in one large heap.

Naruto was panting hard, pushing himself off Sakura and looked down at her with a panicked face. Sakura was looking equally as panicked. What had gotten into him?

Sakura froze when she heard a cracking noise, causing them both to robotically turn the left.

Sakura blushed from head to toe. Not only because of her current position, but because Sasuke stood at the entrance of the house, glaring heatedly at the blond boy. His knuckles cracked together, dangerously.

Behind him, looked a pretty pissed Itachi.

This wasn't good.

* * *

"Here you go Sakura, an icepack for your head." Itachi said softly, placing a blue icepack in Sakura's small hands. She took it thankfully, giving a tiny smile as she sat down on the couch, next to Naruto- who now had a large black eye, coloured with the lovely shades of purple and black.

A wonderful gift from Sasuke.

Sakura placed the icepack against the side of her head as she watched the scene unfold in front of her.

"What were you doing in my room, Naruto?" hissed Sasuke, leaning against the farthest wall from the three, his arms folded securely to his chest while he glared angrily at Naruto.

Naruto laughed nervously, looking over at him sheepishly. "How'd you know I was even in your room?" he replied, his voice becoming oddly high. Sakura tried not to roll her eyes, it was plainly obvious he had been. The way he's looking around, sitting and talking, not to mention he had guilt written clearly across his face.

"I seen you from the window, idiot." Sasuke shot back venomously. Even Sakura had to admit, he looked quite scary. She shivered.

"He's right Naruto, and because of your stupidity, you got poor Sakura here injured. As if she's got enough to deal with as it is." calmly spoke Itachi, walking over toward the glass doors to lean against it. "Care to explain yourself?"

There was complete silence for a moment, before Naruto abruptly pointed a finger at Sakura. "It was her idea!" he retorted loudly.

Sakura gazed wide eyed at the blond, her mouth falling open. He was blaming this on her?! The nerve! If she remembered correctly, it was his idea. Sakura held in her glare, puffing her cheeks angrily. She kind of regrets defending him earlier now. No, she does regret defending him.

"Naruto," bit Itachi, his brows narrowing "It's not nice to pit the blame on someone-"

"-No." Sakura bit in, unable to control herself. She mentally kicked herself, something inside her telling her to shut the hell up and let Naruto be thrown into the tigers cage. "It's my fault."

The three heads turned to her. Sasuke looking slightly taken back. Itachi looked half amused and half curious while Naruto just stared, gaping at her.

"It is?" said Naruto, which he quickly covered it up "Yeah, it is, it is!"

Sakura looked up at Sasuke, holding back the heat that was building up beneath her skin. "It was an invasion of privacy. I should have done more to stop Naruto, I'm sorry." she squeezed her eyes shut. Surprised by her own boldness.

"Yeah! Wait, what?" Naruto blinked at Sakura.

Itachi sighed and shook his head. "Sakura, it's not your fault. It's okay, no need to apologise." he offered a weak smile when Sakura looked up at him sadly.

"No need to coddle her…" muttered Naruto, earning a sharp glare from both Sasuke and Itachi.

"Whatever…" grunted Sasuke, pushing himself off the wall. "Besides, we've got homework to do. C'mon…" he gave a quick side glance at Sakura, completely ignoring Naruto before stalking out the room.

* * *

Sakura found herself, along with Naruto and Sasuke sitting at the glass table in the living room. And once again, she was as red as a tomato. Not because of Sasuke this time though, instead, it was her biology homework.

They were still doing the reproductive system. And it didn't help that she was the only girl in the room, especially when Naruto would give her the odd stare in certain places before asking rude questions toward her. For instance, the first question he asked was about her breasts. 'Does milk really come out of there?' he'd asked.

That earned him a smack in the ear from Itachi when he'd walked in to grab something, before he walked back out.

"What's the opening of the uterus?" asked Naruto, staring tiredly down at his sheet of homework.

Sasuke fidgeted besides Sakura, gently brushing his leg against hers. She shivered at the warm touch. Sasuke muttered something incoherent under his breath before looking up at Naruto's stupidly confused expression.

"Cervix…"

Naruto nodded, scribbling the answer down half-heartedly.

"Sakura," whined Naruto after a few minutes "What connect to the ovary and the uterus?"

Sasuke side glanced at her, as if he too was interested in the answer.

Sakura blinked stupidly, before shaking her head and ducking down further to the table. "Fallopian tube…" she whispered meekly. The two boys quickly scribbled it down.

It went on like that for awhile, mostly Naruto asking questions or trying to peak at the answers that Sakura had. Sakura wasn't too thrilled at having questions thrown at her specifically. Naruto had tried asking Sasuke a few times more on a few other questions, but he seemed more than useless with 'the female parts'.

It was about sunset that Naruto had finally given up, throwing his pen down and groaning as his stomach gave an angry growl.

"Ah, I'm going to get some ramen!" he exclaimed, before jumping up and stomping out the room, leaving Sasuke and Sakura in an awkward silence.

* * *

**Ok! So I lied, there's going to be more of Sasuke in the next chapter haha! Please don't be mad!**

**Anyway, thank you for reading and so sorry if there's any spelling errors!**

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**~Review?:3~**  
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	15. Power Cut

**A lovely thank you to you amazing reviewers!**

_**12courtney12 -**_** The pairings are Sasu/Saku (it'll get there haha) and I'll be adding in Naru/Hina somewhere in future. Not sure about the rest, but I'm still thinking on that!**

_**Sasukerr14 **_

_**Aimii0**_

_**Trueblue51**_

_**Tuliharja**_

_**UchihaSarah926 -**_** I'm so glad you're enjoying so far!:3 The reason behind why I'm wanting to write this story, because I want to share my personal experiences to people and show them how I managed to cope (though I was never bullied to the extent Sakura has, but I know how it feels) 90% of this story is based of my own life experience and what I myself have went through. Also, I found this website when I was 13 (I'm currently 19 right now) and have been addicted to it since:3**

* * *

**~Power Cut~**

* * *

"Why do you need to take so many pills?" idly asked Sasuke, plopping down to sit on the couch next to Sakura. He rested his hand on the arm of the couch, staring blankly at the television that didn't happen to be on.

Sakura gulped, shimmying away from him and gave Naruto a glance. He was currently going through a bunch of DVDs, humming happily. Naruto had came up with the idea of watching a movie after dinner since there was nothing else to do and he didn't really want to do any more homework. She was sort of worried, Sakura didn't know what 'type' of movie he was going to pick.

But falling back into reality, Sakura turned to give Sasuke a one over. He wore a loose blue shirt and baggy black jeans. Sakura thought that it suited him well for some reason, but maybe because she was getting used to everything being blue or red in the Uchiha house.

Sakura gulped, resting her hands on her lap. What was she supposed to say to him exactly? As far as she knew, all Sasuke knew was that she was ill. What more did he need to know?

She sighed quietly. "They… make me feel better." she mumbled.

Sasuke looked at her from the corner of his eyes, before giving her a short nod followed by a "Hn.".

The truth of the matter, the pills were making her feel somewhat better. The headaches seemed to calm down a bit and her energy had gone up. Only by a little though. It had only been one day after all. The Uchiha's, mostly Itachi, had been very kind to her. But all she could say was thank you, it made her feel a little depressed. She still thought of herself as a bother to them.

But in truth, the two brothers didn't seem to mind. Sasuke was a little cautious though, but he could tolerate it for the time being.

"Is it contagious?" Sasuke asked another question, his voice bored and almost emotionless. Sakura blinked at him, slightly taken back. He looked at her this time, his head turned straight to look at her expectantly.

Sakura shook her head furious. "No," she said softly "It's not contagious."

Sasuke nodded again, carefully looking over her face for a few seconds longer than necessary before turning back around to look at Naruto.

"Yes!" Naruto exclaimed, raising a DVD up into the air in utter happiness.

Sakura squinted to see the name on the case. She wished she hadn't. Suppressing her groan, she mentally face palmed. She'd seen that movie too many times that she had actually found it funnier every time she watched it. There was nothing scary about it.

What was it called again?

_Mama._

* * *

Naruto had scooted Sakura over so she could sit in between Sasuke and Naruto, she had reluctantly moved. It did make her uncomfortable having to sit in between two guys, she'd never really been in this kind of situation before. If you ignore the fact she was staying in a house full of guys. And her being the only female.

It made Sakura even more uncomfortable when Naruto had turned off the lights, it was basically pitch black until Naruto had placed the DVD into the player and in a hurry sat next to Sakura.

Naruto had laughed that if Sakura got scared she could hold his hand. She made sure not to do that, not that she needed to anyway. The movie didn't scare her in the least. All she had to worry about was _not_ laughing.

Sasuke on the other hand, stayed indifferent on the current matters. Staring blankly at the television and waited for the main menu screen to show up.

Naruto seemed to be almost vibrating in his seat, saying over and over again how he'd never seen it but it's supposed to be the most scariest film of all time. Sakura stayed quiet, not wanting to ruin anything- not that she would anyway.

Sakura threaded her hand through her hair as the movie began to begin.

* * *

Sakura held in her smirk, biting back her laughter harshly. She really had no clue how someone could be so stupid to think the movie was scary. In her opinion, it was garbage, laughable even. It made it all the more better when she had begun noticing the reactions of the two boys next to her.

Naruto had been gripping the couch, digging his nails in dangerously. He had also appeared to be sweating, staring wide eyed and gulping loudly when the 'creepy' music would begin to set in. it was his fault for picking such a dull movie. So if he was going to have nightmares tonight, it would be all on him for his stupidity.

Sasuke on the other side, had actually been trying to conceal his emotions with great effort. Sakura at one point had thought he found it boring, that is until he twitched when 'mama' had jumped out in the movie. He had flexed and stiffened, and Sakura could have sworn he made a noise. Though maybe it had been imagination. She couldn't be sure.

Sakura on the other hand, was silently mocking the movie. She seriously found it a joke, big, huge joke and whoever made the movie deserved a good kick in the rear for making such pitiful attempts at scary movies.

Sakura wouldn't class the movie in the scary section. If she had her way, it deserved to be in the comedy section. It was just that terrible.

Don't get Sakura wrong, she loved scary movies, especially older ones instead of the new generation of scary movies. It would be a rare occasion that she would actually be scared into sleeping with the lights on because of certain movie. But with all these new 'scary' movies coming out, she'd barely ever watch them.

It was always the same, and very unoriginal. It was always about some 'ghost' or 'entity' inviting itself into a house or a demon trying to posses someone. She guest people were running out of ideas nowadays. Sakura also used to love vampire movies, but until that terrible movie _Twilight_ came out, she practically would vomit at the very word vampire. Her opinion was, the vampires in _Twilight_ were just fairy/Tinkerbell and human hybrids.

She did like the books though. She'd give it that much, but it was so poorly directed and what was up with those actors and actresses? It was _terrible_. Complete guff!

Sakura shook her head and tried with her best attempt, to pay attention to the movie. Though it was easy to distract yourself from a movie like that…

Just in time too.

Naruto had flown one foot in the air in fright, seeing 'mama' or mamas face for the first time apparent did freak him out. Sakura would have rolled her eyes at him, if he hadn't decided to latch himself to her body. Wrapping his arms tightly around her torso.

It had given her a small shock to the system at the sudden closeness, causing her arms to slightly raise and fall. But that wasn't the only thing that had shocked her. Her hand had landed on top of Sasuke's. She didn't even know it was that close to her.

She blushed heatedly and was about to pull away until Sasuke suddenly gripped her hand tightly, as if it were a life preserver. He didn't look at her though, he stared straight ahead, watching the movie intently.

"D-don't worry Sakura! I'll p-protect you!" declared Naruto through his stuttering teeth, still gazing at the television.

He was going to protect her? Sakura swallowed her laugh, it felt more like _she_ was protecting _him_. How did she get herself into this anyway? Oh yeah, she let Naruto pick the movie. Well, not so much let, he just did it. Not that she had a say in the matter.

What was she now? Moral support? Lovely.

Sakura felt Sasuke's hand tighten as he quickly adjusted their hands unconsciously, before intertwining them together.

She felt her cheeks burn and her heart skipped a few beats. It was so _un_-Sasuke like. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought this would ever happen. If she was told one hour prior to this that she would indeed be holding his hand, she would have laughed like a mad person. Not that she minded, she secretly enjoyed it but she would never admit that to herself.

Sakura suddenly found the movie to be highly more interesting, trying to ignore the fact Naruto was latching onto her body and Sasuke was gripping her hand for dear life.

She blinked back her shock and swallowed.

To further her shock, she even found herself twitching and jerking when the music to the movie would suddenly turn on. She'd not realised before how loud the volume was until now, it was almost like she'd become hyperaware in a sense.

Oh dear, what was wrong with her? This movie wasn't scary at all but there she was twitching and jerking.

She tried biting on her lip to bring her back to her senses, but it seemed it wasn't working. It wasn't helping and it sure wasn't going to prepare her for what happened next.

It happened to suddenly and fast she couldn't comprehend what had happened. One moment she was staring at a brightly lit television and the next she was staring into the complete darkness and trying to figure out what was going on.

It didn't help when Naruto had begun screaming down her ear and clinging to her even tighter than before, almost completely choking off her air.

"She's coming for us! She's here! _Fuck_! Mama is here to get us!" he screeched, causing Sakura to jump and give a scream of her own. It was short but enough to get her heart racing 100 miles per hour.

She looked around frantically, looking for a source of light. That was short lives because she found that she couldn't exactly move her head around anymore. Something was clinging to her from her other side now, and it was not Naruto.

Something warm wrapped around her midriff, pulling her slightly away from Naruto and into something much warmer. Something also placed itself against her cheek, where she could feel something hot breathing down her neck. It caused her to shiver.

"Shut up, idiot." she heard Sasuke whisper, right next to her ear.

It caused her breathing to hitch. So it was Sasuke holding her now too, not just Naruto that was clinging to her. She would have blushed, if she wasn't so freaked out. What the hell was going on?

"Sasuke, what're we gonna do? We'll die if we stay here! What about a sacrifice-"

"Naruto!" this time it was Sakura, hissing toward the voice of the blond boy. "Shut up, you're freaking me out!"

It was on impulse that Sakura had actually told him off. She was scared, her body trembled badly and it didn't help when Naruto was going on about the character from the movie was going to pop out and kill them. It stupidity! _She_ felt stupid for even being scared. She really had no idea how she was going to sleep tonight. She was beginning to dread that…

"Sacrifice?" said a cool voice from the distance.

Naruto jerked the three forward. "I told you she wants a sacrifice!" he screamed, pushing the three onto the floor, as if an attempt to scramble away. It was a very poor attempt.

Sakura felt something heavy weighing her down and she gasped at the sudden force. She began to squirm under the pressure of the heaviness.

She stopped short when she saw a light shine toward her, though she couldn't understand how it got over there or how it was hovering in midair.

"Were you going to use Sakura as a sacrifice, Naruto?" said a slick and smooth voice, the light moving closer.

"Itachi?" said Naruto from somewhere.

Sakura watched as the light moved around to closer to where she had fallen and to whatever was weighing her down. Eventually, when she squinted up, she finally realised it was Itachi holding a torch light. She could dimly seem his amused face.

"It appears we have a power cut." he said "Don't worry, it shouldn't last long. Now why don't you two get off poor Sakura, you're crushing the girl."

Sakura blinked, before her head swerved around. Something brushed against her face as she looked up with wide eyes.

Sasuke was mere centimetres from her face, staring down at her with his own shocked expression. His breath tickled her as it brushed over her. Their noses were touching and she began to worry that he could feel the heat radiating off her face and body.

That wasn't the only thing though. Sasuke was even more beautiful up close like this. His set of onyx orbs staring deeply into her own and she could have sworn he inched a little closer.

"Alright, alright, I'm getting up." grumbled Naruto, popping into view from above, lying atop Sasuke. He looked down to meet Sakura's gaze as she tore it away from Sasuke. He gave her a shy smile and laughed nervously. "Sorry Sakura…" he said, before releasing some of the pressure.

Sasuke however, didn't make a move to budge and it began to make Sakura feel a little uncomfortable. Not that she already wasn't uncomfortable, she'd never been this close to a boy's face. Part of her didn't enjoy it, though another begged to differ.

"Sasuke." barked Itachi, narrowing his eyes at his younger brother.

Sasuke blinked, as if awakening from some sort of trance and looked around, realising their position and close proximity. Sasuke gulped, throwing himself back against the couch. Sakura breathed in a gust of air and sighed, happy to be able to breathe properly.

* * *

It was later that night that Sakura found herself in the guest bedroom, alone but the door was open. She didn't want to close it, not after tonight. She still felt spooked after the events. Her heart was still racing fast and she just couldn't seem to calm it down, no matter how hard she tried.

She was sitting up straight, knees pulled securely against her chest.

Sakura really had no idea that the movie _Mama_ could freak her out so much. When she had entered the bedroom, in the dark since the power still wasn't back on, she pretty much flew across to her bed in fear there was some monster under it and ready to pull under. She called herself an idiot for thinking that, but she couldn't help it.

It didn't help anything with everything being so cold too. Along with the power, so too did the heating. Sakura apparently didn't have enough body heat to completely keep her warm and part of her wished she was still sitting next to Sasuke and Naruto, the two were extremely warm.

Sakura found herself sighing and shivering all in the one. What she would do for an extra blanket. She wasn't ready to leave the safety of the bed anytime soon though, or ask for anything on that note.

She sighed again and leaned against the headboard.

"Sakura?" said a voice from the open door, causing Sakura to jump and then stiffen. "It's me, Naruto." she relaxed a little. "Cant sleep ether?"

Sakura cleared her throat before hesitantly replying to him. "Yeah…" she whispered.

"Good!" Sakura frowned and looked up, trying to spot him through the darkness of the room and hall. "Then I'm joining you." he declared, causing Sakura stiffen again. What exactly did he mean by that?

"Naruto, what the hell are you doing? Sakura is sleeping, idiot." hissed another voice. Sakura raised her brow, don't people sleep at this hour?

"Shh, Sasuke," Naruto whispered back "Itachi might hear us-"

"-So might Sakura." harshly and quickly replied Sasuke "Go back to bed."

"Oh, yeah I am. I'm sleeping in Sakura's room tonight."

There was low shuffling noises, and Sakura strained to hear what exactly what was going on as well as trying to see what was going on. She never knew how one place could be so dark.

"The hell you are." grunted Sasuke, followed by more shuffling.

"Relax will you, Sakura is awake, go see for yourself."

"I would if I could…"

Sakura abruptly sneezed, it was quiet but the two were able to hear it. Sakura mumbled and rubbed her nose. "I told you she's awake." Naruto said.

Sakura squeaked when something heavy plopped down onto the bed she was on. She squinted her eyes further to try and see, but again, that didn't seem to work. "What's going on?" Sakura whispered quietly, hating the fact she was blinder than a bat.

There was a low noise from the door, until there was an almost silent click. "If you're sleeping in here with Sakura, then so am I. I don't want you suffocating her with your stupidity."

Sakura blinked.

Sasuke and Naruto were sleeping in her room tonight?

* * *

**Sorry if there's any spelling errors! **

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**~Review?:3~**

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	16. A Stolen Kiss

**A huge, huge thank you to everyone that reviewed! I'm squealing in happiness right now!:3**

_**Sabakunofaye **_

_**12courtney12**_

_**Trueblue51**_

_**November Fatale **_

_**Uchihasarah926 **_**- the most of my experiences (I've had a pretty messed up life haha but I've had a lot of help from my family, friends and psychologist) I regret pretty much all the stress I've put everyone through with my 'problems'. Ah, I know how it feel to have someone pick on last names, I used to be called 'little lamb' because my last name is 'Lambton'. But anyway, I'm really so happy that you like my story:3 And thank you so, so much!**

_**Crazymel2008**_

_**TheBloodyLoveOfSakuraHaruno **_

_**SasuSakuKawaii **_

_**Hawkllama **_

_**Tuliharja **_

_**Sasukerr14**_

**I'm apologising in advance for the short chapter!**

* * *

**~A Stolen Kiss~**

* * *

Sakura had awoken to something warm pressing against her on both sides. Lethargically, she rubbed sleep from her eyes and let loose a small groggy groan. She didn't know what was so warm, but it was a nice feeling. Most mornings she would wake up feeling cold, but never warm.

She sighed and snuggled deeper in the layers of blankets on top of her, humming gently before letting out a tired yawn and let her legs stretch out.

Sakura stopped suddenly when her foot brushed against something solid and warm. She frowned slightly, and sluggishly rolled onto her left side.

Something hot flushed across her face the moment she moved to her side, causing her to blink repeatedly as she looked up. She didn't know if she was still dreaming or not, but she was certain that Sasuke Uchiha was sleeping there, right next to her for that matter. She blinked again and rubbed her eyes, trying to decide if what she was seeing was real or not.

Sakura gazed up at his sleeping form, it was almost serene and so peaceful that she felt a sudden pang of jealously. If only she could be at peace like that. His hot breath tickled her face again, causing Sakura's head to spin. She carefully pinched herself, still trying to figure out if he was really there.

But when he didn't disappear, her face began to furiously turn a bright hue of red. He could be there, could he? Why would Sasuke Uchiha be in the same bed as her? Sakura tried to get the gears in her head moving, being flushed and confused in the morning really wasn't a good thing for her.

She slowly began to regain the memory for the day before. She remembered the movie, she remembered Naruto clutching onto her and Sasuke holding her hand, Sakura remembered the power went off and Naruto screaming about a sacrifice then falling off the couch and-

Her eyes widened. She remembered how close her and Sasuke's face was. But here and right now, their faces were practically almost touching. Her heart began to accelerate and she was positive it was going to leap right out of her chest at any moment now.

Sasuke gave a small moan, his eyes wrinkling together. Sakura's breath hitched as she watched him open his sleepy eyes. He blinked at her, unsure of what was going on and confused with sleep. He opened his mouth to speak but then something from behind Sakura decided to make itself know.

"Ramen, ramen, ramen~" the voice sang "Ramen, ramen, Hinata, ramen…"

Something harshly shoved and pushed into Sakura's back, pushing her forward a few inches.

Both sets of eyes, emerald and onyx, widening in shock as both Sakura and Sasuke's lips collided with one another.

If it was possible, Sakura's heart just blew up.

* * *

Oh, Sakura was beyond embarrassed, she couldn't look anyone in the eye. Her face was a permanently stained red for half of the day already. She could barely even eat her breakfast, but had forced it down when Itachi had warned her he'd personally feed her himself. She wanted to bring it all back up after she was finished.

She was _humiliated_.

She didn't even know how it happened. Their lips had touched, was it a kiss? No, it couldn't be. Sakura didn't know what it was. It was just as quick that it happened that she'd been the first to pull away not a second later. Sasuke had given her the most oddest look before he got up and stormed out the bedroom. Leaving her in a daze.

He was probably disgusted with her.

Sakura's stomach churned at the thought of that, but at the same time it was fluttering wildly. She wanted it to stop. It was just making things more awkward and uncomfortable, more than it really needed be actually.

It didn't help anything when she'd found out the school was closed for the day due to the power cut still not being turned back on. She had to deal with Sasuke for the entire day, she was partly bothered but he hadn't come out of his room all day and it made her wonder if she'd done something wrong.

It wasn't her fault that it had happened. If anything, she'd been blaming Naruto for the awkward situation.

She tried to shake the memory and thoughts away and focused on the current situation.

Sakura was sitting outside again with Naruto, though he had been going in and out to try and get Sasuke to come out of his room. He came back every time with a look of failure, but that was always replaced with determination and he'd stomp back in after a short while to try again. It was almost a constant cycle that kept replaying.

But that wasn't the only thing that was distracting Sakura, she had a visitor actually. To be more precise, it was Ino. And for once, she was glad to see Ino. Even though when she had turned up it was rather awkward, especially after she mentally replayed their conversation in her head.

But nonetheless, Ino proved a good distraction from earlier on. Even if it meant just sitting and listening. She was happy that she hadn't asked why she was staying with the Uchiha's or her current state. It was almost comfortable. _Almost_.

Sakura felt like she was currently walking on egg shells around Ino, and she had no doubt that she probably felt the same.

It was about lunchtime when Itachi had decided to join them in the garden, sitting calmly on the grass and let out a loud sigh, looking up at the brightly lit light blue sky. "Sakura?" he has asked, his voice impassive.

Sakura looked up at him with curiously. "Yes?" she replied, running her hand through the short cut green grass.

"Do you happen to know what is wrong with Sasuke? He's not come out to eat yet." Itachi's head poked in her direction. Ino listened in, lying on her stomach, with elbows propping her up as she leaned her chin into her hands.

Sakura shook her head lightly, forcing back the heat that began to build up. "No." she muttered, looking down at the grass as she began to rip a few blades off, rubbing it between her fingers with a suddenly newly found fascination.

Itachi turned back to look at the sky, but didn't say anything.

Ino blew a strand of blond hair out of her face and rolled onto her back and gave herself a long stretch. "Ah, such a nice day." she chuckled, seeming quite pleased that she wasn't at school today. Sakura grimaced, she didn't think it was a nice day at all. It was a horrible day, but the sun and heat made it worse.

"Indeed." agreed Itachi, leaning back on his arms, closing his eyes.

The three sat in silence, taking in the warmth of the sun- not so much Sakura, and listened to the birds from the not so far distance, chirping and singing merrily. Sakura knew it wouldn't last long for her, eventually she would have to see Sasuke again, if not one way then most likely another. She silently dreaded that.

"Naruto! You _bastard_!" screeched the voice of Sasuke.

Sakura froze, looking around frantically. Ino giggled from her spot on the grass where as Itachi gave a heavy sigh, opening his eyes.

"I better go see what's going on…" he grumbled, standing up and walking silently back into the house.

* * *

Sakura would have laughed if the situation wasn't so incredibly awkward.

Ino hadn't been left that long ago, and that left her, Naruto and Sasuke alone. Itachi had left for some business after scolding Naruto for the little 'mishap'. Apparently, Naruto thought it would be fun to pour ice cold water over Sasuke's bed and over Sasuke's head. Which left a very angry Sasuke in the same room as her and a nervous Naruto.

Sasuke was still seething, even though it had been three hours.

Sakura fidgeted in her seat, unsure of what to do or say. Naruto had apologised repeatedly, but then went onto saying Sasuke deserved it. Which ended up in the two arguing on and off. What Naruto had done to set Sasuke over the edge, she'd probably never know or find out and part of her didn't want to know.

All she wanted to do was hide in a room alone, with no one there to make her feel uncomfortable. Because that was definitely how she felt right now.

Sakura breathed in a shaky breath of air, leaning forward from the couch in attempt to get out of the situation and hide upstairs in the guest room. But apparently, she hadn't gone unnoticed.

Sasuke turned his icy glare onto her, before he jabbed a finger in her direction, halting her in her tracks. She froze, stiffly turning to gaze up at him.

"You," he barked toward her, making her flinch "We have some matters to discuss later. And don't even _think_ about trying to get out of it."

Sakura's face paled.

What on earth had she done?

* * *

**Ah! Again, so sorry for the terribly short chapter and if it's crappy! Another huge sorry if there's any spelling errors! D: **

**The next one shall be longer! I promise!**

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	17. A Date?

**Another big thank you to you lovely people who have reviewed me!:3**

_**Sasukerr14**_

_**November Fatale **_

_**Trueblue51**_

_**Sabakunofaye - **_**Ah sorry to hear that, but I'm glad to know people can relate (to an extent, or more) to my story as well as what I've been through personally. My friends and family helped me out a lot, I'm still getting better as it is now haha. As for kids, well I'll put it simply it's one of many reasons why I don't want them XD ah kids these days, they both scare me and annoy me so much!:3**

_**Koolkid**_

_**MissKonoha**_

_**Mystery Day Dreamer**_

_**TheBloodyLoveOfSakuraHaruno**_

_**SasuSaku4evagurl**_

_**SasuSakuKawaii -**_** I was somewhat bullied quite a lot, more so because I was the 'new kid' since I was moved around every other week/month. I first noticed I was 'different' in behaviour wise when I was 5, I would hide in cupboards, boxes and whatever I could because I was constantly scared. It progressed from there to current time, so yeah this story is heavily based (to an extent) of my own life experiences:3 And yes, it's where Sakura gets her behaviour from xD **

_**Aimii0 **_

_**Tuliharja **_

_**UchihaSarah926 -**_** Aw, I quite like the last name Lemon haha! I know what you mean about having a round face, I had hamster cheeks with dimples (my aunt liked to comment quite a bit because of that) but not so much now, it slimmed down quite a lot!:3**

* * *

**~A Date?~**

* * *

Sakura was on the edge, to say the least.

She was visibly shaking as she bathed in the heat of the shower. She was having a mental panic attack. If it was one thing she hated the most, was knowing she knew nothing about the unknown. She didn't know what to expect. It was frightening. And if she thought going back to Konoha was scary, this was worse.

What did Sasuke want?

To tell her how repulsed he was at the mere sight of her? She'd understand if he did. She, herself, found herself repulsing. But she'd never seen him angry, well, not toward her anyway. It was scary to see anyone that mad at her, no one has been as mad toward her like that. Sure, they were annoyed by her, even hate her, but never like that.

What should a girl do? Because she was positive that he was going to scream at her, no doubt about that. Especially the way he looked at her. It just screamed at her- 'hate'. Or that's what she thought.

Her teeth chattered, feeling oddly cold against the hot shower.

All she could do right now was prepare for the onslaught.

* * *

When Sakura had came out the bathroom, she had made a hurry to get back to the guests room, feeling oddly paranoid Sasuke was going to pop out any moment and drag her off to throw a fit at her. She shivered at the thought.

She was slightly dizzy from the shower, she guessed the steam had got to her because she found herself stumbling a little accompanied my a lightly spinning head. I could have been worse. There had been times where she felt physically sick after taking a shower and she was glad she wasn't going to have a repeat.

But nonetheless, she glad she had taken a shower, not just because she felt clean but because she was no longer wearing Sasuke's clothes. She had some of her own now since she had gone to pick some up from her house when she was with Itachi.

It wasn't as baggy as the clothes Sasuke let her borrow, but it was still pretty baggy compared to her tiny frame. Though it wasn't that different from the ones she was wearing earlier.

Instead of a blue top, she had a large red jumper on. It was one of her favourites, though it wasn't very thick - it was quite thin actually - and drowned her body completely, it was also very, _very_ soft and comfortable. She also had a pair of pyjama bottoms on, black ones that fell just below the ankles. Also super comfy.

Sakura took a quick peek down the stairs as she passed them, she gave a sigh of relief when there was no one there, coming up or down or just standing there.

She sped up as she reached the door to the room she was staying in and threw herself inside, closing the door harshly behind her and pressed her back to the door and hung her head low, looking at the ground..

She huffed out after a moment before pushing off it.

"Sakura."

Sakura froze, robotically looking up with wide eyes. _Shit_. It was Sasuke, sitting calmly in the centre of the bed, his eyes focused entirely on her.

"Sasuke?" she squeaked in fright.

Why was Sasuke in her room? Well, she had a good guess why. But wasn't this an invasion of privacy? Her cheeks flushed a light pink, she didn't like where this was going. Nope. Not one bit.

Sasuke hopped of the bed and took one step toward her. Sakura eyed him in uncertainty. He hadn't started shouting at her, _yet,_ so that's a plus.

Oddly enough, he didn't say anything else, instead, he settled for pacing in front of her with his hands clasped behind his back and his brow setting into a deep frown signalling he was deep in thought.

What was going on? Sakura wanted to know, but didn't dare voice her question.

Sakura blinked toward the pacing Sasuke. She refused to let her blush deepen, though it was a difficult task. Extremely difficult. After all, she's never had a boy in a room with her like this. If you ignore the facts from earlier, where both Naruto and Sasuke had slept in the same bed as her. And if you ignore that Naruto had also slept in her bed the day before that…

But that was an innocent thing, right? Nothing happened.

Sakura gulped, hesitantly retracting her arm behind her and fumbled around blindly for the door handle while she still kept her focus on Sasuke pacing. When she eventually found it, which didn't take long, she was about to swing it open and run out but before she got the chance, Sasuke was suddenly there.

He placed his hand on the door, keeping it in place so she couldn't open it. Sakura squeaked, falling back to her back hit the door.

Sasuke put another hand on the opposite side of her head, leaning in slightly. Sakura felt her heart speed up, pushing herself further against the door, eyes bugging out wildly.

"Sakura," he spoke calmly, too calm actually. His breath brushed warmly across her skin, giving Sakura a gentle shiver and her head spun again. Her stomach knotted and twisted sickly as the butterflies returned angrily when Sasuke leaned in again.

"W-What?" she squeaked, dazed and frozen to the spot.

A small smirk graced his face as he reached out one hand to play with a strand of her damp hair. Sakura was mentally screaming for herself to focus and stop being so pathetic and to just do something.

Right now, she felt like a cornered animal. And it was _really_ freaking her out.

_Focus_.

"Sakura," he said again, looking intently into her forest green eyes. "Go on a date with me."

Sakura's breathing momentarily stopped as everything sunk in. Her already wide eyes, widening even more. No one had ever asked her that before, or wanted to for that matter. It was suspicious.

It was within a flash that a memory flashed before her eyes. The memory of Sasuke laughing at her, laughing at her humiliation and pain.

Her heart thumped harder as Sasuke leaned in even more, lips almost touching.

Sakura panicked, ducking underneath Sasuke and toward her bed, distancing herself. Sasuke spun to her from the door, narrowing his onyx eyes.

With a sudden found confidence, Sakura narrowed her own eyes at him. She felt there was something off. Like, _really_ off. For one, Sasuke barely even knew Sakura. Why would you bother asking anyone out on a date if you basically knew nothing about the other. It was… well, just weird.

_Say yes…_ a voice whispered in her head.

But before Sakura could act on impulse, she found herself already answering before she realised it.

"No." she answered flatly.

For a moment, Sasuke looked taken back, his jaw falling slack before he snapped it shut and have her a short glare. Sakura cringed back, but tried with all her strength to stand her ground. For once, anyway.

"And why _not_?" he asked, not sounding too pleased with her answer.

Sakura gave a small shrug, looking down at her bare feet. "I don't want to…" she mumbled.

She heard Sasuke sigh heavily, grumbling something under his breath. "Please," he forced out "I want to get to know you better, _go on a date with me_."

Sakura could have sworn it was a demand, or some sort of order. She wasn't having it though, somewhere inside her she knew it was some cruel prank. He was going to get her hopes up and crush her. There was no way someone as handsome as Sasuke would want to go on a date with her.

They weren't in league together. He was the embodiment of perfect, everything she wants. It would only upset her if she agreed and maybe down the road somewhere, it would have been all for nothing.

Yeah, all for nothing.

But, like he said, he wanted to get to know her. What couldn't he ask here instead of on a date? What was it?

"No." Sakura repeated quietly.

There was a low growl. "Fine." Sasuke hissed.

Sakura heard the door open and slam shut, enough for her to feel the vibration. A few seconds passed before Sakura sunk down to the floor, bringing her knees to her chest, she breathed shakily.

What exactly just happened?

* * *

The next day, Sakura was in low moods from the night before. She made sure to stay in bed an extra hour, making sure Sasuke had left for school since it was a Friday.

There was heavy bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, she had stayed up most of the night replaying the scene over and over again in her head. Thinking of what she could have said and what she wished she could have done. Maybe making things a little different.

She even fought over the urge to change her mind and say yes. She really did fight hard, but the other part of her won over and she stuck with a firm 'no'. It was just a mess, her mind anyway.

A guy had never asked her out on a date or even wanted to get to know her. So why _should_ she say yes? Because this was the first guy to ask her? Not just some guy though, this was Sasuke Uchiha we're talking about. If she jumped straight into it, she would be sure to drown somewhere, it would only cause her pain and hurt.

Not only that, but she barely even _knew_ Sasuke. Honestly? If you asked her one question about the raven haired boy, she wouldn't be able to answer it. So going on a date with someone she barely even knew was out of the question.

Or was it because of that 'accidental kiss' that wasn't really a kiss, but just the two pushing their lips together, that Sasuke felt obliged to ask her out on a date? It was so stupid. And it annoyed her.

Why the hell had Sasuke asked her out on a date?

It just didn't make sense. Ugh!

When she had managed to drag herself out of bed, she had trudged her way out of the room and down into the living room where Itachi was calmly sitting on the couch, reading a book.

He didn't turn to look at her, but she knew he was aware of her being there. After all, she wasn't exactly silent when she came down the stairs. She practically stomped. She just hoped Itachi wouldn't pick up on her bad mood, that was the last thing she needed.

"Good morning, Sakura." he spoke, giving a small wave as he continued to read his book.

Sakura swallowed down her thick throat. "Morning…" she said, trying to sound a little happy. But it came out as one big strain.

Itachi glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"

Sakura shook her head, and sat at the further end away from Itachi, on the couch. "Tired…" she mumbled, looking out the window.

A few moments ticked by, before Itachi gave a light chuckle, causing Sakura to turn to him sluggishly with a blank expression. "Funny," he said, shaking his head. "Sasuke gave me the exact same excuse this morning."

Sakura tensed at the name, but forced herself to relax. It wasn't as if he was going to pop up out of nowhere to purposely scare her. "Really…" she grunted dully, turning back to the window.

Itachi cleared his voice "Did something happen between you two?"

Before Sakura could stop herself, her mind seemed to momentarily switch off and words flew out of her mouth. "He asked me out on a date." she spluttered, words sounding oddly strained and thick. But it wasn't like she was going to cry or anything.

"Oh, did he now?" replied Itachi, sounding shockingly calm. Sakura turned back to him. "Would you like to _speak_ to my little brother?"

Sakura didn't know why, but that almost sounded like a threat. Not toward her though, more, unknowingly, toward Sasuke. Sakura's eyes widened a fraction as her tongue jumped around for words.

"N-no!" she squawked.

Itachi held up his hand. "Sakura, you are a guest here. No one should be troubling you, it's not good for your health. Sasuke should have known better." Sakura was about to say something, but Itachi cut her off "Also, if you don't mind me asking, what was your answer to him? I have a pretty good idea what it was, but I want to hear it."

Sakura swallowed, inhaling deeply. "I said no." she sighed, crossing her arms.

To her surprise, Itachi smiled at her. "Good, now lets get you some breakfast and take those tablets."

Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes but nodded nonetheless.

* * *

Sakura chewed her lip nervously, staring down at the draughts board on the glass table.

She was highly aware it was past lunch time. But she hadn't looked up to check the clock for the time.

Itachi had stayed with her the entire day, keeping her company. Usually, from what she had picked up on, she would see him leaving on an almost daily basis to go out on 'business' as he would put it.

She just wondered why he hadn't done it today. She didn't mind being alone, if anything, she was used to it and she really didn't want to get attached to company or having someone around her.

She wouldn't deny that she had enjoyed the company so far. She didn't feel as anxious, but that didn't mean she still wasn't anxious. Take Sasuke for instance, the next time she probably saw him, she'd probably end up shaking in her boots. Not after last night.

But it all came down to one thing at the moment, something she'd been wondering for a long time. What did Itachi work as?

She frowned down at the board, Itachi skimming one of the chips to another place.

"What's wrong?" Itachi asked gently.

Sakura peeped up at him, a little nervous. She tried to brush it off though. "I was, uhm wondering… what do you work as?" she rushed out, feeling a little blush creeping up on her.

Itachi chuckled and shook his head. "Currently? I'm in a band." he stated, matter of fact. Sakura raised a brow at that. Itachi continued "I won't always be in a band, before I turn 30 I'll be taking over my fathers company."

Sakura blinked. She'd never heard him mention his father before, come to think of it, she'd never seen any of his parents in the house.

Itachi waved it off. "So, Sakura, what do you want to be when you're older?"

Sakura frowned, she didn't exactly know herself what she wanted to be. She'd never given it much thought before, but thinking about it now, she truly had no idea.

"I don't know," she shrugged meekly "Never given it much thought."

"Hmm…" hummed Itachi, but never pressed the matter. Instead, they silently continued to play the board game. Which Sakura seemed to be loosing at…

* * *

By the time Naruto and Sasuke had returned back home that day, Naruto seemed to be bouncing up and down with excitement.

Sakura was sitting on the couch reading a book, along with Itachi who was reading a separate book, when he had entered the room, a large grin slapped right across his face.

He had instantly, almost skipped, right to where Sakura was and stopped in front of her. He had leaned down, grinning from ear to ear and it made Sakura nervous. Very nervous.

He placed his hands on his hips, still smiling wildly. "Guess what, Sakura?" he said in a sing song voice. Sakura twitched, before raising an eyebrow curiously. Naruto practically 'giggled', wiggling on the spot with excitement. "We're having a sleep over tomorrow, and it's going to be in _your_ room!"

Sakura's eyes widened a little, unsure what to make of the new information.

"Naruto," Itachi said lowly. Naruto turned to look at him, almost cringing back as Itachi's look began to darken. "It's not going to be in Sakura's room, is it?"

Naruto gulped. "No." he whispered.

Itachi suddenly smiled. "Good."

* * *

Sakura was slightly more happy around dinner time. Though Itachi had left to take care of a few matters, she was left with Naruto. And thankfully, Sasuke was up in his room out of sight.

Naruto had made them ramen, though the portion size was more than moderate, she didn't know how she was going to eat it all, or most of it for that matter. Just looking at it made her feel full and it was a challenge swallowing her tablets after looking at it.

Naruto had made three bowls, one for Sakura and two for himself. It surprised her when he went through the first bowl with great ease. In her own words, he practically inhaled the first bowl.

"So," said Naruto, staring on his second bowl as he slurped up noodles. "You have any idea why Sasuke is acting like a little girl today?"

Sakura turned to him, frowning and not knowing what he meant. "What?"

Naruto rolled his eyes "Why is he acting so grumpy?"

Sakura heisted, not sure if she should tell him. But in the end she decided against it because Naruto would ether go and tell everyone, or laugh. She didn't want ether. To her, it was a serious matter.

She shrugged "I don't know." she replied, nibbling at a piece of pork.

Naruto snorted. "Maybe it's his 'menstruation' time," he winked, causing Sakura to choke. "I know what it means now." he whispered, leaning toward her ear slightly.

Sakura shook her head, resisting the urge to hit him upside the head.

"Oh, yeah," Naruto added "It's only Ino, Hinata and Shikamaru coming tomorrow by the way." Sakura gave a nod "That way it's even, you know? Three girls, three guys. And because everyone else thought it was stupid…" he grumbled the last part.

Sakura wasn't ecstatic, or excited actually, unlike Naruto had been. He seemed overly thrilled that there was going to be a sleepover. Sakura felt more reserved about it. She'd never had a sleepover, but wasn't her staying with the Uchiha's technically classed as a big sleepover?

Sakura chewed her cheek. She'd seen movies and stuff on it, mostly a bunch of girls, they'd have makeovers, do each others hair and have pillow fights and talk about guys.

That didn't sound like Sakura at all. She couldn't even imagine her doing any of that. Especially with Ino or Hinata. Did Sakura have to wear something specific or normal pyjamas? Would she have to go out and buy makeup? Hair accessories?

She shook her head.

She was thinking too much into it.

All she could probably do is go with the flow and see how things planned out. Who knows? Maybe she'll even enjoy it.

Sakura will just have to wait and see.

* * *

**Ah, I never updated yesterday because I wasn't feeling too well. I had a lot on my mind and I kept seeming to get stuck as soon as I started. But It's okay now!**

**I hope you enjoyed reading and really sorry if there's any spelling errors! Also, sorry if it's not as long as you were expecting, but no worries! I have big plans for the next chapter:3**

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	18. The Sleepover Part 1

**A big thank you to you lovely reviewers!**

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* * *

**~Chapter 18: The Sleepover Part 1~**

* * *

Call it paranoia, but the moment Ino walked in the front door of the Uchiha house, Sakura had an impending feeling of dread of events to come. She didn't know if it was the way Ino had swaggered in or the way she looked at Sakura.

Sakura couldn't fathom what that look meant. But the first thing that came to mind was torture.

It was when Ino winked at her, that her stomach decided to twist nastily. She didn't like the look she gave her or that cryptic wink. It just screamed danger and her mind had screamed at her to run while she still had the chance. But Sakura stayed rooted to the spot, like a deer caught in the head lights.

She felt like something sinister was about to happen. Like her worst nightmare was about to be played in front of her. And she couldn't understand what was going on or what was going to happen.

She felt oddly calmer when Hinata had silently walked in, offering Sakura a kind and genuine smile that she began to calm down a little. Though not entirely. Hinata gave a small hello and followed Ino along.

Shikamaru was the last to arrive, sluggishly shuffling his feet along the carpet and a look of tiredness clearly written across his face. He dully greeted Sakura and sauntered off to find Naruto and Sasuke who were upstairs in Sasuke's room. Leaving Sakura to greet the guests and show them their way.

Though apparently it wasn't needed. Sakura had automatically thought that the three had been there before since they seemed to know their way from point A to point B and know exactly where the stairs and living room was.

She gave a heavy sigh, Sakura truly wasn't looking forward to tonight.

* * *

Ino walked around the room with her hands on her hips, which also happened to be in the room Sakura had been sleeping in. A thoughtful face graced her, her eyes glazed over as she thought deeply.

Sakura sat neatly on the bed, her knees tucked securely under her, leaning slightly against the headboard. Hinata had a nervous smile, sitting further down the bed from Sakura. Hinata shakily kept pressing her two index fingers together and looking down and then back up.

Sakura frowned, she was right. Something wasn't right. She could just feel it.

Ino and Hinata had both dressed into their pyjamas as soon as they entered Sakura's room, which left her feeling slightly awkward. Ino was revealing too much flesh, such being an almost see through purple pyjama top with a low V neckline and way too short shorts. Sakura wondered how one person could wear such things. She would never _ever_ wear something like that.

Sakura found it more comforting with Hinata. Hinata wore a large panda onesie and the hood pulled over her head securely. She even admitted it looked cute, and Sakura wasn't one for cute or fluffy things. Sakura was just a person that likes darker shades. But that didn't bother her.

She just hoped none of the boys intruded them. She'd feel embarrassed for Ino, as silly as it sounds, she really would.

Ino abruptly stopped in the centre of the room, fling her arms up in distress as she let out an angry snarl. "What the hell!?" she hollered, slapping the side of her head and tugging at her long blond hair.

Hinata gulped, quietly clearing her throat. "What's the matter, Ino?" she asked, throwing her a nervous glance.

Ino looked down, scowling at the floor as she dropped her hands and clenched her fists. "I cant think of anything…" she muttered.

Sakura gave her a blank look. Not knowing what she meant but she was positive that what Ino meant is exactly what she said. She never questioned it, just mutely watched as Ino continued to glare at the floor.

"Oh…" mumbled Hinata, looking down at her lap as her own thoughtful face came to be.

Sakura glanced between the two, was there something going on that she hadn't been informed about? It was supposed to be a normal sleepover, though she didn't exactly _know_ what to do at a sleepover she was assuming by this point that Ino or Hinata would have started painting each others nails. Though it was proving negative at the current point.

"I don't get it!" spat Ino, stomping her foot "I brought a tone of things to do it, I had a bunch of ideas too! It's like '_whoosh' _straight out of my head!"

Hinata giggled lightly at Ino's frustration and shuffled to the end of the bed gingerly and placed her feet on the ground as she sat at the end. "What kind of things did you bring?" she asked softly.

Ino gave a shrug and swaggered to the bed, pulling her hand under it and ripping out a large dark purple bag. Sakura had raised an eyebrow at it, peering down at it. When she had first seen Ino bring it in, she'd wondered a great deal on what could be in it. Think about it, who needs a bag that big for a sleepover? Not to mention Sakura swore she heard clinking inside the bag.

But Ino hadn't brought just one bag, she brought two, the other one as equally as large and big as the first. It was literally the same length as Sakura if she was lying down, with, maybe a few more inches added on.

Ino continued to pull the bag out further before rushed over to the door, making sure it was securely shut before she locked it. Sakura's eyebrow raised higher, she had no idea there was a lock to the room.

Ino then dashed toward the curtains and drew them closed, making sure there was no gaps for anyone to see in or out.

With one last look around, she nodded her head and walked toward the large bag and plopped down on the floor next to it. "You guys might want to check this out together, since it's obvious Hinata wouldn't bring anything."

"Uhm, Ino," Hinata nervously added in "I may have brought a few things. But it's not much…" she shrugged.

Ino's eyes bugged out a little before she gave a quiet laugh. "Well, well, well. This is certainly a first for you Hinata, you _never _bring anything."

Hinata shrugged again and slid off the bed, retrieved her own black bag from under the bed which was only half the size as Ino's and joined her in the centre of the room. The two then turned to Sakura expectantly.

"Come on, Sakura!" encourage Ino as she gave a smirk.

Sakura eyed the two, before reluctantly joining the two on the floor. She couldn't help it, she was very curious to what was in the bags and how important they apparently were. But she complied ether way. She wanted to know what kind of sleepover this was.

"Okay," said Ino quietly, glancing over shoulder before looking the two girls in the eyes. "Lets keep our voices down from now on." she continued "Remember, this is a mission. Winner takes it all, got that?"

Hinata gave a sharp nod, a look of determination flashing across her pearly orbs. Sakura frowned. _Mission_? What was that supposed to mean? Nothing bad is going to happen, right?

"Got it." Hinata softly replied.

"Right," Ino cleared her voice and swiftly unzipped her bag "I've got ropes, a few cans of whipped cream, wax strips, make up, hair accessories, tweezers, hair spray, peanuts, hair dye, nail polish, frilly clothes and tampons. Got a few other things, but I'll tell you later." Ino let out a sigh "Your turn, Hinata!"

Hinata nodded again unzipping her own bag "I've got perfume, a pregnancy test, a few smoke bombs and a box of cupcakes." she said, giving a gentle smile.

Sakura gaped at the two, jaw hanging loose that she couldn't find the nerve to close it. Why would someone bring _that_ to a sleepover? Was this normal? Because it all looked more like torture devices in her opinion. She just couldn't wrap her head around it.

_What kind of sleepover is this?!_

Ino and Hinata shared a long look before turning to Sakura's shocked and frozen expression. Ino sighed and scratched the bag of her head. "Oh, that's right," she said sheepishly "You've never had a sleepover with us."

Ino laughed nervously as Sakura's expression changed into a glare. "What the hell is going on?" she hissed.

Hinata hesitated before explaining. "Well, you see Sakura," she began slowly "Our sleepovers aren't exactly the _normal_ ones."

Sakura narrowed her eyes. She kind of figured as much.

"You could say it is a boy versus girls sleepover. The winner gets treated like queens or kings!" Ino clapped her hands together, letting out a long squeal. "That's why we have to prank or scare the boys into submission or into forfeit. You get it?"

Sakura furiously shook her head. "But why do you need all those, I don't know, _things_?" she jabbed a finger sharply toward Ino's bag and then to Hinata's.

Ino rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "Isn't it obvious?" Sakura shook her head, causing Ino to huff. "It's torture! We need weapons. Oh by the way Hinata, good job with getting the pregnancy test but what's with the cupcakes?"

Hinata laughed nervously, her cheeks tinting pink "Well, I mixed the cupcake mix with laxatives…"

Ino burst out laughing. Sakura wasn't as amused. She didn't even know what to think. How exactly did they plan on getting the boys to eat them? Like Ino said, girls versus boys. Wouldn't they catch on or be suspicious?

Come to think about it, Sakura hadn't exactly agreed to any of this. It's not like they can force her into it. Right?

"Okay!" Ino sighed "Now all we need is a plan." Sakura was about to protest, but Ino cut her off "Sakura, you _have_ to take part in this. If you don't, you'd easily be captured and used as a hostage. You don't know what they could do two you, especially after last time." Ino wrinkled her nose in disgust. Hinata shivered.

"It cant be that bad…" she muttered.

"Actually…" Hinata mumbled "It was horrible."

Ino grimaced. "Last time we had Tenten with us, both Hinata and Tenten ended up being captured. They were _really_ mean to them. I had to forfeit or they would have gone further."

Sakura's eyes widened.

"No-No!" Hinata rushed out, her cheeks reddening "It's not what you think Sakura."

Ino nodded "Last time, they boys dyed their hair white and poured fish guts over them and if I didn't give up, they threatened to shave their heads and to put on a pair of Naruto's dirty underwear over their faces."

Sakura's nose wrinkled in disgust. Why would they go that far?

"I wish Tenten could have come with us," Hinata sighed sadly "She comes up with really good plans and she's always got the best stuff to use against them."

Sakura began to grumble to herself. She could go ether way. One, if she didn't play along and if what Ino said was true, she'd be royally fucked being by herself. Not only that, she'd be an easy target and could quickly be captured and 'tortured'.

Or she could go the other way. She could stick with Hinata and Ino and have and the potential of her being captured and tortured would be slimmer. Who knows? Maybe not even be captured.

She chewed her lip.

"I'm in." Sakura forced out in a strained voice.

Ino grinned at her while Hinata offered a small smile. "Now all we need to figure out is a plan."

Sakura rubbed her chin thoughtfully. Since she was going to be a part of this, she had to make it work even though it was going against everything. If it stopped her getting caught, then she was willing. But what would be the best plan? It's not like the three of them could just waltz in there and take down all the of them.

They may be women, but from what Sakura has seen is the three guys have more muscle power. In a struggle, she would say the guys would win. But the girls, however, or in general, women are more agile and quick on their feet.

So how could that play to an advantage? Muscle power and being quick on your feet are both as good as each other.

Sakura froze, what was stopping the guys from busting in there and taking the girls down? Or maybe they were planning on it?

"Maybe we shouldn't be in the bedroom, we could be cornered easily and wouldn't that be a bad thing? Maybe we should hide somewhere else." suggested Sakura.

Ino thought for a moment, before nodding. "That's a good point," Hinata nodded in agreement "The Uchiha house is pretty big, we could find somewhere else to hide. But you've got to remember they've got Sasuke on their team. He knows every inch of this house like the back of his hand."

"But the game doesn't begin until exactly nine at night." pointed out Hinata "What time is it now?"

Ino looked down at her wrist, something Sakura failed to notice is Ino had a watch on. "It's eight right now." she replied "We have at least half an hour to think of a plan before we decide where we'll hide."

"Right…" muttered Sakura "But… are we going to be taking any 'hostages'?"

Ino smirked "Of course, it wouldn't be fun otherwise. Just I wonder who the easiest target is…" she tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"Naruto." Hinata and Sakura simultaneously deadpanned.

Ino clapped her hands together, a large smile planting itself across her face. "I've got it! I know the plan!"

Sakura sighed. She sure was glad Itachi wasn't home today. Unless of course, he _knew_ all about the sleepover mission type thing?

* * *

On the other side of the hall, in Sasuke's dimly lit room, sat three guys. Huddled into a small circle, muttering quickly amongst each other.

"So the plan is, one of us has to willingly be captured. That way it'll play to our advantage. Got it?" said Shikamaru, for once, sounding deadly serious. Naruto and Sasuke nodded their head sharply. An aura of seriousness surrounded the three boys.

Sasuke and Naruto shared a quick glance. "Not it!" they called in union.

Shikamaru groaned, his head dropping. "Should have figured that'd happen." he muttered.

"So what happens when you get captured?" Naruto asked eagerly, leaning forward with excitement.

Shikamaru scratched his chin. "Isn't it obvious? I'll gather as much information as I can so we can use it against them, you know? Look for the weakest link. I have a few smoke bombs, so I'll keep them in my pocket and drop them when the time is right so I can get out."

Sasuke nodded in understanding. "But," he added in "What if they tie you up?"

Shikamaru sighed and rubbed the back of my head. "That would be troublesome, wouldn't it? I guess," he paused before beginning again "I call out a signal. A word so you two can come in for back up."

"Ramen!" Naruto grinned.

"Idiot, that's a stupid idea." hissed Sasuke.

"Actually," Shikamaru smiled slightly "That could actually work. They'll be confused if I shout that out which would be perfect. They'll drop their guard."

Sasuke glared at Naruto, but eventually shrugged it off. Naruto just continued to grin, slightly bouncing on the spot.

"Now that's the plan, don't forget it, got it?"

Sasuke and Naruto nodded.

* * *

"Sakura, tie your hair back. That goes for you too Hinata." called Ino as she buckled a belt around her waist. Sakura looked over to her, raising an eyebrow in confusion. Ino caught her glance and rolled her eyes. "It's so your hair doesn't get in your eyes."

"Oh…"

Sakura looked around, searching for something to pin her hair up.

"Here." said Hinata, walking over to Sakura and offered a purple hair bobble. Sakura took in generously, giving a soft smile at the indigo haired girl. Messily, she threw her hair up into a high ponytail.

"Take this Sakura," Ino called again, throwing a belt toward Sakura. Sakura gave another curious glance as she caught it easily, causing Ino to sigh heavily. "The belt has items we'll need. Yours has pepper spray, tampons and one smoke bomb."

Sakura blinked "I didn't know you had pepper spray with you."

Ino chuckled "I didn't ether until I checked my purse." shaking her head she looked between Hinata and Sakura "Now, remember the plan."

The two girls nodded.

* * *

Sakura glowered. She don't know why she did it, but she just did. Ino had thought she heard a noise when they had made it through to the kitchen and had told everyone to hide. And Sakura had been shoved into a cupboard.

Her brow twitched furiously at the situation.

Sakura tried to listen out for noise, or even footsteps for that matter. But there was complete nothing. It was quiet. Not only that but the game should be starting in ten minutes. They didn't have to hide. Right?

She grumbled to herself and opened the cupboard a crack, peeking out carefully. She could see Hinata hiding under the table. Hinata was quite lucky actually, if it wasn't for the table cloth, she would be easily spotted. Sakura could just see her feet and hands.

Leaning forward a little, she spotted Ino out of the corner of her eyes. Hiding behind the door leading into the kitchen.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Sakura. What if they were going to get caught? What if they were trapped? They couldn't get caught out this early, actually, _before_ the game even started. Sakura never liked to admit it, but she was very competitive. If she set her mind to something she knew she could achieve it. Maybe not socially, but in other ways.

Sakura heard a small noise, causing her to freeze. She tried to control her thumping heartbeat as the noise grew louder and louder.

"What're we coming down here for anyway?" grumbled a voice.

Sakura slapped a hand over her mouth to hold in her gasp.

'_Shit'_ she thought _'It's Naruto…'_

"We need some items. We don't want to go out there without a defence, especially against women. They're relentless." said another voice. Sakura recognised it as Shikamaru. She pressed her ear against the cupboard silently, trying to listen in closer.

"What do we need?"

Sakura bit down on her lip, hard enough to draw blood.

That was it. They were doomed. All three boys were in the kitchen. There was no escaping now. They'd catch them straight away. There was no hope…

"Whatever you have really-"

"Ino!?" screeched the voice of Naruto. Sakura's stomach twisted nastily as she tried to peek out the cupboard again. Though unfortunately for her, something or some_one_ was blocking her view.

"Yes?" Ino shakily replied.

Sakura's hand found itself toward the belt, reaching toward the pepper spray. She had to do something, she couldn't manage with two against three.

Sakura heard Sasuke chuckle. "Looks like we've got our first victim." he said darkly.

"Wait." said Shikamaru "What time is it?"

There was a long pause, before Sasuke spoke up again. "Three minutes after nine. She's ours now."

Sakura didn't understand what happened next, but her body had ripped itself from the cupboard, throwing herself across the kitchen floor as she ripped something out of the belt. She was hoping for the pepper spray, but instead she had a small black ball.

Something took over her as she lobbed it toward the ground, ending up in a large explosion of thick black and gray smoke. "Move it!" she hollered.

Before Sakura could start running anywhere, something firm gripped her upper arm in a vice like grip. Sakura turned and strained to see who it was. But she could barely see anything through the thick smoke.

Her other hand reached down and fumbled for something to use in a hurry, trying to keep her panic at bay. She grabbed, successfully this time, the pepper spray.

And before she knew it, she was spraying it in the direction of whoever was gripping her. Hopefully getting them in the eyes.

* * *

Sakura huffed, landing on her bed heavily as her heart pounded loudly in her ear. Her cheeks a light pink from the run back up stairs and from the panic. She didn't think they could be found out so quickly. It was even harder to get back to her room however, it was hard running through the black smoke.

She nuzzled the bed, appreciating its cold touch against her hot forehead.

Sakura steadily began to control her breathing.

"Help…" said a meek voice from behind Sakura, causing her to twist around. Her forest green eyes bulged out at the sight she saw.

Hinata was dragging, what appeared to be, an unconscious Naruto. Her jaw hit the floor as she struggled to pull him through the door. But that's not what shocked Sakura, it was how the hell he was even unconscious and how Hinata managed to drag him up the stairs.

Ino ran up from behind Hinata, almost bumping into her but managed to evade. Ino halted in her track as she gazed down at Naruto, a look of surprise dancing across her face. She pointed at him and looked up at Hinata with a slack jaw.

"Help me get him in," she forced out, straining to keep her grip.

Ino shook her head, grabbing Naruto's lower half and hurried themselves into the room before Ino dropped his legs and slammed the door shut, locking it securely.

* * *

Back down in the kitchen, Sasuke sat, slumped over the kitchen table, balling his fists tightly. He cursed repeatedly under his breath. His eyes were tightly shut, and turning a nasty red colour as they began to swell.

His fists shook a little and he grit his teeth.

"Damn it," he hissed, slumping further onto the table "Fuck."

There was movement from near by, causing Sasuke to stiffen as he replied on his ears to pick up where it was coming from and what it was.

"You got hit pretty good, huh?" said the voice of Shikamaru.

He was on the floor, lying down actually. He began to sit up once the smoke had cleared. "Shut up," barked Sasuke "Did you get hit?"

Shikamaru chuckled. "Nope, just laid down on the floor."

If Sasuke could see, he would have glared at him. Why the hell would he lye down at a time like that? There was really no explanation for it. "Looks like it was a sneak attack," Sasuke muttered, trying hard not to try and rub his eyes. He knew it would only make it worse.

"Yeah and man, you look like shit, Sasuke." Sasuke let out a hissing noise at Shikamaru's comment. "Hey, I'm not here to pick a fight. I'm just saying, I never expected them to sneak up like that. Or use pepper spray. They sure are fighting dirty this time around, huh?"

Sasuke grunted. "We need a new plan." he muttered.

Shikamaru sighed "Yeah…" there was a few moments of silence as Shikamaru surveyed the room, inspecting it carefully. "Hey, where's Naruto?"

* * *

Sakura really couldn't believe it. Had she heard correctly? That Hinata had personally knocked Naruto out? It didn't seem possible. Hinata was so small, she could never have to strength to do that. Right? There was just _no way_.

She blinked at the scene in front of her from the bed. Ino and Hinata had tied Naruto to a chair securely. Making sure there was no way he could pry himself loose or struggle so much that the ropes would fall slack. The chair was positioned against the door. Ino had said if Shikamaru or Sasuke try to barge their way in, they'd only be hurting a member of their own.

Ino was rummaging through her bag, looking through items that she'd left behind as she hummed to herself happily. Ino had praised Sakura on her quick thinking, but in truth Sakura wasn't thinking at all. It just happened, _without_ her say so.

Hinata sat on the bed next to Sakura, looking between Naruto and her lap.

Sakura had begun to wonder when Naruto would wake up and what exactly Ino was planning on doing to him. She had heard what the boys had done to Hinata and Tenten in the past, but Ino couldn't be that cruel, right?

"Hmm…" mumbled Ino, plopping down on the floor in front of her bag. "Should we make him eat the cupcakes?" she suggested with an evil smirk.

Sakura shook her head. "Why not wax his legs?" she offered.

Ino blinked at her, Hinata turning and raising an eyebrow. "Actually," Ino tapped her chin "That's a good idea. Then we can give him the cupcakes." she sniggered.

There was a muffled noise, coming from Naruto. The three girls turned to him, watching as he began to awaken from his slumber. He groggily lolled his head left and right, eventually falling forward, continuing to let out small groans. Sakura almost felt sorry for him. _Almost_.

"Wha…?" Naruto lethargically lifted his head, blinking his half lidded eyes, trying to make sense of his surroundings. "Shika…maru?" he mumbled, his head lolling "Where… am I?"

"Wake up, Naruto" Ino whispered softly in his ear as soon as she got to his side. A sickly smile on her face. Sakura couldn't help but cringe. Women could be so… _evil_. It was going to be worse for Naruto. It's definitely going to be _brutal_. She'd seen how he reacted around the feminine hygiene in the past, she didn't think he was going to enjoy one second of it.

"Eh?" grunted Naruto as he blinked up at Ino.

Ino's smile widened. "Hell Naruto, glad to have you back with us." she sniggered.

Naruto blinked some more, realisation kicking in as he looked around frantically. "What the hell?!" he cried out, realising he was tied to a chair. "Untie me!" he demanded, thrashing about angrily.

Ino placed a hand on his shoulder, causing Naruto to freeze, nervously looking back up at her with wide, frightened blue eyes.

"Sakura, Hinata," said Ino "Grab Naruto's legs."

* * *

Shikamaru helped Sasuke up the stairs and toward his bedroom. Sasuke slumped heavily on Shikamaru, his eyes tightly shut. He continued to muttered curses. The pain had slightly subsided, but it was still there and it still hurt like hell.

"Man, this is going to be a drag. You're practically blind, how is that going to help us now…" grumbled Shikamaru.

"Shut up." hissed Sasuke "This is your fault for wanting to go into the kitchen."

Shikamaru snorted. "Whatever…"

When they made it to Sasuke's room, Shikamaru carefully opened the door and made sure Sasuke didn't trip or fall over before guiding him toward his bed where he slumped over it, lying face down.

"What's the plan now, genius?" mumbled Sasuke into his covers.

Shikamaru sighed. "Well I guess-"

"Ramen!" screamed an erratic and panicked voice, changing pitch three times "RAMEN!"

* * *

"Jeez…" muttered Ino, claming her hands over her ears. "What's he screaming ramen for?"

Sakura held in her laugh, peeping down at Naruto's now patchy legs. She was really unsure at first, but after doing _that_ she actually found the fun in it. Something she'd never ever thought she would find funny, she did.

Hinata's nose wrinkled as she held up the hairy wax strip before tossing it to the side.

"Naruto, would you like a cupcake?" asked Ino sweetly.

Naruto looked up at her, his eyes watery. He sniffed "What kinda cupcake?" he asked meekly.

Ino smiled at him "It's chocolate with lots of frosting, they're really yummy. Want Hinata to feed you one?" Naruto sniffed again, trying to wipe away his watery eyes. He nodded weakly, almost pouting. "Good boy." Ino giggled, signalling Hinata to grab a cupcake.

Hinata hesitated, reluctantly doing as she was told and grabbed a cupcake before walking over to Naruto. "Here you go, Naruto…" she whispered, a trace of guilt in her eyes. She leaned forward, placing the cupcake to his lips where he took a fairly large bite out of it.

"Sakura," Ino whispered. Sakura looked at her from the corner of her eyes. Ino nudged her "This is our chance, lets dye his hair." Sakura began to chew her cheek "Don't worry though, it's not permanent. It's the wash out one, you know? It's the spray in one."

Sakura nodded, watch as Hinata fed Naruto a cupcake. "What colour is it?" she whispered, surprising herself that she sounded eager about it. She shook it off though, trying to focus properly.

"Green and red." Ino winked, scurrying off to her bag to quickly rip out the hair dye before rushing back over to Sakura, making sure to hide the two cans behind her back. She carefully handed the red can to Sakura. "Did you enjoy that, Naruto?" she asked.

Naruto looked up at Ino, his eyes still slightly watery as Hinata pulled away from him. Naruto gave a small nod.

"Good!" Ino squealed "Lets get him, Sakura!"

Ino charged Naruto, ripping the lid off the hair dye can and began to spray across the top of his head. Sakura hesitated as Naruto began to thrash around and scream out. But nonetheless, she followed Ino's lead and began to spray the side of his head. She accidentally sprayed his cheek, she continued though, trying to ignore it.

The two were abruptly stopped when there was a sharp knock at the door.

Ino and Sakura shared a quick look.

"Who is it?" called Ino, frowning slightly.

"It's me," grumbled the voice of Shikamaru "We give up. You win."

* * *

**Sorry if it's a little crappy! But I've been unwell recently, but I did try haha. I hope you enjoyed reading and sorry if there's any spelling errors!**

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